FOI/202600504799 · FOI · cost limit
Scottish Child Payment data: FOI release
Information requested
Request for information 1:
The number of people who received (or were eligible to receive) the Scottish Child Payment for three children, four children, five children and more than five children as of 31 September 2025.
Request for information 2:
The maximum number of children that a Social Security Scotland client has received (or been eligible to receive) the Scottish Child Payment for as of 31 September 2025.
Request for information 3:
How many Social Security Scotland clients were in receipt (or were eligible to receive) the Scottish Child Payment, Adult Disability Payment, the Winter Heating Payment, Best Start Grants and Best Start Foods simultaneously as of 31 September 2025. If possible, please break this down by how many children Social Security Scotland clients were eligible to claim the Scottish Child Payment for.
For example, if 1,000 clients received all these benefits simultaneously, please state how many of these 1,000 received (or were eligible to receive) the Scottish Child Payment for one child, two children, three children etc.
Response
We have interpreted your requests to be for information which was held on the last day of September 2025.
Request for information 1:
The following figures represent the number of people who received the Scottish Child Payment for three children, four children, five children, and more than five children as at 30 September 2025.
21,920 parents or carers with 3 children where in receipt of Scottish Child Payment 6,011 parents or carers with 4 children where in receipt of Scottish Child Payment 1,458 parents or carers with 5 children where in receipt of Scottish Child Payment 516 parents or carers with 6 or more children where in receipt of Scottish Child Payment
Request for information 2:
The maximum number of children for which a Social Security Scotland client has received the Scottish Child Payment as at 30 September 2025 was ten.
Request for information 3:
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.
Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12. This is because to locate and retrieve the requested information would require manual interrogation of over 180,000 Scottish Child Payment cases.
You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, requesting a smaller sample size. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: https://www.foi.scot/how-do-i-ask
We did investigate with analyst colleagues, seeking readily available statistics or statistics which could be compiled and collated. They confirmed that no such analysis had been undertaken as of the date your request and that such analysis would require linking of multiple datasets across the benefits mentioned in the request followed by a bespoke analysis. Public authorities are not required to create information in order to answer a request.
You may be interested in our most recent, official published statistics for Scottish Child Payment here: Scottish Child Payment statistics to 31 December 2025 - Social Security Scotland
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.
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