Social Security Scotland: clients responding to equality forms to December 2019
Number of clients responding to Equality Monitoring and Feedback forms from 10th December 2018 to 8th December 2019.
Data
Social Security Scotland: clients responding to equality forms to December 2019
Description
Information on diversity for clients applying to Social Security Scotland for Best Start Grant, Best Start Foods, Funeral Support Payment, and Young Carer Grant.
Social Security Scotland began taking applications for Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby payment on 10 December 2018, followed by Best Start Grant Early Learning Payment on 29 April 2019, School Age Payment on 3 June 2019, Best Start Foods on 12 August 2019, Funeral Support Payment on 16 September 2019 and Young Carer's Grant on 21 October 2019.
Clients applying for benefits online, by telephone or mail between the 10th December 2018 and the 8th December 2019 were asked to fill out a separate non-mandatory Equality Monitoring and Feedback form following on from their benefits application form.
Data on clients equalities with application outcome are also available in a separate dataset.
The full publication and tables covering client diversity and equalities to December 2019 are available on the Scottish Government website.
Metadata
| Theme | Economic Activity, Benefits and Tax Credits |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Scottish Government |
| License | UK Open Government Licence (OGL) |
| Published | |
| Last updated | |
| Update frequency | annual |
| Reference period | 2018 to 2019 |
| Geographic coverage | Country |
| Contact | MI@socialsecurity.gov.scot |
Data quality
Completeness
Age
-The age group '45 years and over' covers 45-89.
Ethnicity
-Minority ethnic includes African, Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British, Caribbean or Black, Mixed or multiple ethnic groups, Other ethnic group.
Religion
-Christian includes Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic, Christian Orthodox and Other Christian.
Uniqueness
Not assessed
Consistency
The method for collecting equalities information was improved on 9th December 2019 by making the questions mandatory, with a 'prefer not to say' option for those that don't want to disclose this information. This new methodology should provide more robust data.
Timeliness
This dataset has been published in parallel with the full publication on the Scottish Government website. This is a one-off publication. We aim to publish future equalities analysis on a regular basis, as official statistics as soon as is practical.
Validity
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.
Accuracy
As this was non-mandatory the response rate was very low (<5%) and therefore any results in this publication should be treated with caution due to the small sample size. The results of the analysis is based on the small proportion of clients that responded to the Equalities Monitoring and Feedback form, and it is not known if this is representative of all the clients that applied.
The majority of responses were from applicants for Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods (95%), because Best Start Grant has been live for the longest period of time, and because there is a single combined form for the three Best Start Grant payments and Best Start Foods.
To take into account backdating and delays between applications being authorised and payments being made, the data cut from March 2020 has been used to produce statistics on Equality Monitoring and Feedback forms received, and application outcomes up to 11.59 pm on 8th December 2019. 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.
Quality management
Duplicates in records from Equality Monitoring and Feedback forms
Clients are able to make multiple applications to Social Security Scotland. If a client applied multiple times and also chose to complete an Equality Monitoring and Feedback form each time they applied, then there could be duplicates for the same client in the equalities dataset used for this analysis. There were a small number of records in the Equality Monitoring and Feedback form information which had the same postcode and date of birth. In these cases, where responses to the equalities questions were the same, we have assumed that they are duplicate responses from the same person, and one of the records was kept whilst the other was removed. Where answers to the questions were not the same, all of the duplicate records were removed from the data set because we cannot tell if these records are the same client who has applied for different benefits or if they are a different client. The duplicate records that were removed accounted for 3% of the original data set.
Clients that chose not to answer equalities questions
A number of clients that completed an Equality Monitoring and Feedback form selected that they did not want to answer equalities questions. These clients were removed and accounted for 14% of the original data set. Additionally, some clients did answer at least one equalities question but did not complete all of the equalities questions. These clients were retained in the dataset, but where an answer was missing they were counted in the 'Unknown' category for that question.
Additional details
Revisions
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.
Confidentiality policy
This data contains no sensitive, personal information. Data has been rounded and suppressed for disclosure control.