Adult Disability Payment (ADP) applicants deaths prior receiving fund: FOI release

Information requested

“In a Social Security Scotland document, under the heading Deaths of an Individual, it states:

‘A task will be automatically created if the client was receiving any benefits from the Department of Work and Pensions and the next of kin has notified the Tell us Once bereavement service. Once DWP have verified and input the date of death, the information will be sent via the CIS system which will notify SPM…. A client’s next of kin notifies Social Security Scotland directly. They be asked to provide a certificate usually signed by a registrar where they registered the death’.

In a section under the heading, Individual dies before receiving benefit due, it states:

“arrears of benefit and enquiries made to confirm who should receive these arrears on a person’s behalf”.

Based on this information, please provide the following information:”

Request for information 1: The number of deaths Social Security Scotland have been made aware of in the last five years of clients who were receiving Adult Disability Payment (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024 so far).

Request for information 2: The number of ADP applicants who died before receiving a benefit due in 2023 but were considered eligible for the ADP.

Request for information 3: The number of ADP applicants who died before receiving a benefit due in 2023 and a family member, next of kin, or executor received the arrears.

Response

Request for information 1:

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. The pilot phase of Adult Disability Payment began in March 2022. We therefore do not hold information for the years 2019, 2020 or 2021. The below table provides the remainder of information requested. These figures include new applicants and those whose cases were transferred from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Year	Number of deaths of clients in receipt of Adult Disability Payment
2022	633
2023	4,398
2024 (to 22 January 2024)	119

Request for information 2:

There have been 116 cases were an applicant died prior to the approval of their application in 2023.

Request for information 3:

The number of Adult Disability Payment applicants who died before receiving a benefit due in 2023 and a family member, next of kin, or executor received the arrears, was 110. In the six instances where payment has yet to be made, we are awaiting information from the next of kin or executor.

Our most recent statistics publication for Adult Disability Payment can be found on our official statistics pages: Social Security Scotland - Adult Disability Payment: high level statistics to 31 October 2023.

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