Overpayments and Social Security Scotland workforce information: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

FOI Reference: FOI/202400426981
Date received: 15 August 2024
Date responded: 13 September 2024

Information requested

Request for information 1: How much money has Social Security Scotland handed out by accident or wrongly in the last five years, with a breakdown per year, why it was handed out and whether the money was reclaimed and if not, why not?

Request for information 2: How many staff has Social Security Scotland employed over the last five years, with a breakdown per year and what departments the staff are in?

Response

We have interpreted your request to mean overpayments. 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.

Most of the information you have requested 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.

Further information on the reasons for overpayments and the protective steps Social Security Scotland take, can be found in our Error Control Strategy.

Social Security Scotland - Error Control Strategy

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 2023-24 in November 2024, 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:

Please be aware that changes to division names and groupings have occurred as Social Security Scotland has grown. For example, People & Place staff are captured within the above figures assigned to Finance & Corporate Services due to a mid-year restructure.

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.