Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202200311723
Date received: 19 July 2022
Date responded: 12 August 2022
Information requested
Request for information 1: The number and percentage of people who have been refused payments for the most common reasons for refusal.
Request for information 2: Whether there is any information about the number of people who have been refused a child payment because their child has aged out of payment eligibility – i.e. how many of these people had previously successfully applied but had their payment stopped.
Response
Request for information 1: In a previous request you asked us for a list of the most commonly cited reasons for applications for the Scottish Child Payment to be refused. The response to that request is published here:
As a follow up to that information, you have asked for the number and percentage of people who have been refused SCP for those reasons.
From 15 February 2020 to 31 March 2022, which is the date range for which information was provided in the original request, the number of instances for each denial reason is provided in the table below:
| Denial reasons | Number | Percentage of overall denied applications [note1] [note2] [note3] |
|---|---|---|
| Applicant is not in receipt of a qualifying benefit | 9170 | 58% |
| Child on the application form is outside the claim window i.e. not under six | 3610 | 23% |
| Unable to verify responsibility to the child | 1975 | 13% |
| Applicant is not a resident of Scotland | 1090 | 7% |
| Duplicate claim on another record | 2160 | 14% |
[note 1] This analysis is based on management information that has not yet been quality assured to the same standard as official statistics.
[note 2] Due to how this more detailed management information is extracted from Social Security Scotland’s case management system, caution is needed when comparing any of these figures with the total number of denied applications reported in the latest official statistics.
[note 3] The sum of constituents does not equal 100% because applications may contain multiple denial reasons and thus be counted more than once in this table.
Request for information 2: You have recently requested information on children ageing out of eligibility for SCP. The response to that request has been published here:
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 14(2) of FOISA a public authority is not required to comply with a request for information if it is identical or substantially similar to a request which it has already complied with, unless a reasonable amount of time has elapsed between the two requests. The information you have requested is the same information as was provided to you in the above response on 15 June 2022 and as such this request is refused.
About FOI
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing responses to requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.