Social Security Scotland payments made in error and the reporting of fraudulent claims: FOI release

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

FOI Reference: FOI/202500492596
Date received: 7 November 2025
Date responded: 27 November 2025

Information requested

Request for Information 1:

Confirm for each of the benefits administered and paid by Social Security Scotland, the cost of payments made in error in for the following years: 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and so far in 2025-26.

Please break this down by cost for each individual benefit.

Request for Information 2:

Confirm how many reports Social Security Scotland has made to the police or Crown Office regarding possible fraudulent claims for the following years: 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and so far in 2025-26.

Please break this down by each individual benefit.

Request for Information 3:

Where a report was made by Social Security Scotland to the police or the Crown Office what was the outcome of these reports? (e.g. no further action taken, case was prosecuted, conviction secured etc).

Response

We define official error as errors made by Social Security Scotland, such as through human error or system error.

We only recover official error overpayments if the error is one that an individual could reasonably be expected to notice.

Social Security Scotland does not decide when fraud has been committed; that is for the justice system.

Therefore, we do not classify a behaviour as fraud until conviction by the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service, or if the Crown Procurator Fiscal Service has decided on a non-court disposal as an alternative to prosecution.

You can find more information about our preventative approach to Error and Fraud in our Error Control and Counter Fraud Strategies which can be found here:

Social Security Scotland - Error Control Strategy

Social Security Scotland - Counter Fraud Strategy 2023-2026.

Further reporting on overpayments and fraud has been published in our Annual Reports and Accounts for 2024-2025 which is linked in the table below.

Request for Information 1:

Some of the information you have requested is available from our website Social Security Scotland.

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.

Information relating to the cost of payments made in error can be found in our annual reports as below:

Please see the current 2025-2026 year to date figures in table below:

Note: The figures provided in this table may change depending on the status of the overpayments, including whether they are under appeal or review. As the status of overpayments is continually being reviewed and updated, the numbers in this response may differ in other reports or publications.

Request for Information 2 and 3:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. This is because we do not hold this information for the financial year 2022-2023.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.

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 Publications - gov.scot