Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202500486680
Date received: 28 September 2025
Date responded: 24 October 2025
Information requested
Request for information 1:
How many overpayments have been made by Social Security Scotland? Please break down statistics by FY, by number of overpayments, and the value of said overpayments - per FY.
Request for information 2:
How many overpayments by Social Security Scotland have been recovered, or are in the process of recovery, per FY? Please break down these statistics by number of overpayments recovered/in process of, and the value of said overpayments recovered/in the process of - per FY.
Please provide details for the past five FYs.
If information is not held in this way, please provide whatever information is internally held on the total number and value of overpayments made and recovered over the past five FYs.
Response
Request for information 1:
An overpayment is the difference between what a client has received and what they are entitled to. Benefit overpayments arise where a change of circumstances has been processed after that change of circumstances took place, or where error or fraud have been identified. You can find more information about our preventative approach to overpayments caused by error in our Error Control Strategy.
Information on the volume of overpayments is available from a previously published FOISA response. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy. We are unable to provide a more recent snapshot, this is because the data requires verification following recent system updates.
Information on the value of overpayments is available from Social Security Scotland’s published Annual Reports. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy. Links to the requested information can be found in the table below:
An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because we intend to publish that information in Social Security Scotland’s Annual Report and Account for 2024-2025 on 11 November 2025, which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release some of this routinely published information before the planned publication date.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because the information aids transparency into how the agency considers and recovers overpayments, and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.
Request for information 2:
We seek to recover overpayments whenever appropriate. For example, we do not attempt to recover overpayments that have small values, or are caused by small administrative delays, or that have no liability to repay. Our proactive debt recovery work was suspended from 1 April 2020 to February 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can find more information on our approach to recovering overpayment in our Debt Management Strategy.
Information on the volumes of overpayments in the process of recovery and the values of inbound recovery payments can be found within published Audit and Assurance Committee minutes.
Figures for 2022-2023 can be found in the Audit and Assurance Committee - 16 May 2023 minutes, under section 6C for the Debt Annual Report 2022-23, page 2.
Figures for 2023-2024 can be found in the Audit and Assurance Committee - 14 May 2024 minutes, under section 8C for the Recoveries and Recharge Annual Report 2023-2024, page 2.
Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because we intend to publish that information in Social Security Scotland’s Annual Report and Account for 2024-2025 on 11 November 2025, which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release some of this routinely published information before the planned publication date.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because the information aids transparency into how the agency considers and recovers overpayments, and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.
About FOI
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.