Social Security Scotland: clients equalities with application outcome

Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods

In this dataset the label 'Best Start Grant' has been used to cover both Best Start Grant (including Pregnancy and Baby payment, Early Learning payment and School Age payment) and Best Start Foods.

Joint applications
Clients can make joint applications for Best Start Grant, Best Start Foods and Scottish Child Payment through one joint application form. In these statistics these have been treated as two separate applications for Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, and Scottish Child Payment.

Application Outcome

Applications for Best Start Foods are automatically assessed for Best Start Grant payments and therefore have an outcome for both grants associated with them. To handle this an application was given an approved outcome if either were approved (or both). An application was given a denied outcome if it was denied for both grants.

Approval rate

Approval rate figures are calculated as the proportion of applications approved out of the total approved or denied. In this publication, figures are based on the date of application rather than the date of decision.

Approval rate figures differ slightly from those in benefit specific publications. The main reason for this is that the approval rate in this publication excludes withdrawn applications, whereas benefit specific publications include them.

Not assessed

As of 9th December 2019, clients applying for benefits online are required to complete a mandatory Equality Monitoring and Feedback form following their benefits application form. Prior to this, the Equality Monitoring and Feedback form was completed on a voluntary basis Clients applying for benefits between the 10th December 2018 and the 8th December 2019 were asked to fill out a non-mandatory Equality Monitoring and Feedback form. Data on these clients are available in a separate dataset.

This dataset has been published in parallel with the full publication on the Scottish Government website. This is an ad-hoc publication series. We aim to publish future equalities analysis on a regular basis, as official statistics as soon as is practical.

The data collected is used to identify who is using the service and to investigate how Social Security Scotland processes work for different groups of people. We analyse the equalities data by outcome of application to assess if there is any variation.

As of 9th December 2019, clients applying for benefits online are required to complete a mandatory Equality Monitoring and Feedback form following their benefits application form. This has improved the response rate for equality monitoring.

The majority of responses to date are from applicants for Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods, and Scottish Child Payment.

Clients that apply from outside Scotland are likely to be ineligible, and have their applications denied. The proportion of non-Scottish clients can therefore impact approval rates. In this dataset we have included data on all clients, including non-Scottish clients. However in the full publications on the Scottish Government website we show that differences in approval rates within some equalities categories is partly due to varying proportions of non-Scottish clients. Removing non-Scottish clients can reduce the differences in approval rates between some groups of clients.

To take into account backdating and delays between applications being authorised and payments being made, data cuts have been taken at least a month after each reporting period (e.g. data taken on 31 December 2020 to cover to end of November 2020). Later data cuts may include additional retrospective changes to application details, including corrections to details in the case management system, and changes that have resulted from redeterminations and appeals.

Client numbers have been rounded to the nearest five for disclosure control. Figures may not sum due to rounding.

Equality Monitoring and Feedback forms

Duplicate monitoring forms, clients choosing not to answer equalities questions, and clients missing unique identifiers were removed from the dataset as described in the clients responding to equality forms dataset.

Linkage to application outcome information

Equality Monitoring data was matched to application outcome data. For mail and telephone applications, around 60-70% monitoring forms are matched to outcomes. For online forms, 100% forms are matched to outcomes, excluding a small number of applications that are missing a unique case identifier.

Duplicate application outcomes

There is no limit to the number of times a client can apply for a benefit, therefore a client's equalities information can be linked to more than one application outcome. The data was therefore de-duplicated again after linking. Where at least one of the duplicate application details for a client had an application outcome date, the most recent date was retained. Where all the duplicate application details for a client had a missing application outcome date, only one record was retained. This resulted in a client with equalities information having one application recorded.

Any applications with outcome pending or withdrawn were removed. Then the most recent application for a client based on application decision date was retained and others removed. Where a client had two or more outcomes on the same date, one outcome was randomly retained.

More detailed information about data quality is available in the background to each full publication.

Revisions and corrections to previously published statistics are dealt with in accordance with the Scottish Government Statistician Group corporate policy statement on revisions and corrections - a copy of which is available on the Scottish Government website

This data contains no sensitive, personal information. Data has been rounded and suppressed for disclosure control.