Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202400402510
Date received: 1 March 2024
Date responded: 28 March 2024
Request
Request for Information 1: The number of benefit applications that were first received by Social Security Scotland in 2020 that are still either being processed or are pending. In other words haven’t been given a decision.
Request for Information 2: The number of benefit applications that were first received by Social Security Scotland in 2021 that are still either being processed or are pending. In other words haven’t been given a decision.
Request for Information 3: The number of benefit applications that were first received by Social Security Scotland in 2022 that are still either being processed or are pending. In other words haven’t been given a decision.
Request for Information 4: The number of benefit applications that were first received by Social Security Scotland in 2023 that are still either being processed or are pending. In other words haven’t been given a decision.
Request for Information 5: The longest processing time (from the application being received by social security Scotland to being completed) on record across the existence of social security Scotland.
Please reveal the benefit the applicant applied for as well as the start and end date of the process.
Response
Request for Information 1:
18 applications received in 2020 have not yet been given a decision on the benefit they applied for.
Applications received in 2020 remain open for a number of reasons, including clients who are awaiting a National Insurance number and clients who are asylum seekers. Whilst we actively undertake work to process cases, on occasion these cases may remain without a decision for a significant amount of time whilst we wait for necessary evidence from the client.
We undertake regular ongoing activity to reduce our oldest case load, take necessary actions to progress cases, and undertake regular reviews. Once we have the information required to finalise an application, we will look to do this as soon as possible.
Request for Information 2:
73 applications received in 2021 have not yet been given a decision on the benefit they applied for.
Applications received in 2021 remain open for a number of reasons, including clients who are awaiting a National Insurance number and clients who are asylum seekers. Whilst we actively undertake work to process cases, on occasion these cases may remain without a decision for a significant amount of time whilst we wait for necessary evidence from the client.
We undertake regular ongoing activity to reduce our oldest case load, take necessary actions to progress cases, and undertake regular reviews. Once we have the information required to finalise an application, we will look to do this as soon as possible.
Request for Information 3 and 4:
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the cost of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600 under Section 12 of FOISA. We would need to interrogate each case to ensure issues such as technical and human error do not apply when there has been a decision reached.
Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.
You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You may wish to do this by narrowing the timeframe of your request, or requesting a specific amount of records to be analysed. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at:
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx
Request for Information 5:
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the cost of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600 under Section 12 of FOISA.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have the information requested. Our systems and processes record the time taken to a decision, rather than only approvals, and as such we do not hold the analysis you have requested. In order to be of assistance to you, we considered whether it would be beneficial to interpret your request as relating to the time taken to reach a decision on each application (the processing time), however a partially automated analysis of cases was unable to differentiate out cases where applicants failed to complete the application process. The only way for us then to service this request would be to conduct a manual analysis of potentially thousands of files, and this would be likely to exceed the upper cost limit.
Additionally, you may find it helpful to refer to our statistical publications for information on averaging processing time per benefit, which are published at the following link - Social Security Scotland - Statistics.
About FOI
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing its response to requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.