Scotland's national benefits agency has revealed it overpaid claimants by a staggering £14.25 million last year while simultaneously seeing its own operating costs increase significantly.
Sharp Rise in Overpayments and Operating Costs
According to Social Security Scotland's annual report and accounts for 2024/25, the amount of overpayments detected through fraud or error has nearly tripled from £5.19 million the previous year. The agency's operating costs increased by 9.9% to reach £291.1 million, which included a substantial £21.5 million rise in staff expenses.
The report shows that adult disability payment overpayments accounted for £7.5 million of the total, while Scottish child payment errors reached £4.5 million. This represents a significant increase from 2023/24, when these benefits recorded £1.7 million and £1.9 million in overpayments respectively.
Political Criticism and Growing Concerns
Scottish Conservative social security spokesman Alexander Stewart strongly criticised the SNP government's handling of the situation. He stated: "The SNP are imposing cuts to frontline services but have stood back and allowed government running costs to balloon. Despite promising savings, they've done nothing to rein in the cost of highly-paid civil servants."
Mr Stewart highlighted that the Nationalists have created a welfare spending gap projected to reach £2 billion by 2030. He attributed the massive rise in benefits overpayments to the Scottish Government's reluctance to introduce the assessment processes used elsewhere in the UK.
The concerns come amid forecasts that the total cost of devolved social security spending in Scotland is set to soar from £6.22 billion this year to £9 billion annually by the end of the decade.
Agency Response and Data Security Issues
Social Security Scotland defended the increase in detected overpayments, explaining that more benefits are now directly administered by the agency, making the rise in errors proportional to their expanded responsibilities.
The agency stated: "Following investment in additional error intervention activities, streamlining of processes and introduction of Performance Management approaches, combined with a growing, maturing benefit caseload, this has resulted in an increase in detected error."
The annual report also revealed concerning data security statistics, with 2,187 personal data incidents reported by staff in 2024/25. Of these, 719 were categorised as personal data breaches following assessment, marking an increase from 681 breaches in the previous year.
Despite these challenges, the agency highlighted positive feedback from clients, with 91% of survey respondents saying they felt treated with kindness. Chief executive David Wallace emphasised that "putting our clients first remains at the heart of everything we do" and noted improvements in call waiting and processing times.
The Fraser of Allander Institute has previously noted that the number of people receiving devolved disability benefits in Scotland is forecast to rise from 648,000 in February 2019 to over 1.13 million by 2029/30, with the "light-touch review process" contributing to this rapid increase.
