OFFICIALS were forced to rewrite application forms for Scotland’s new benefits system after being deluged with claims from elsewhere in the UK.
Families on low incomes have been able to apply for part of the Best Start Grant, which helps cover the costs of having a baby, since December.
But officials in charge of the new devolved benefit were taken aback when 10 per cent of the applicants – more than 1,600 – came from outside Scotland.
Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said it signalled that there needed to be “clearer eligibility around residency criteria on the application form”.
She said: “There are a very significant number of applications that we were getting in for Best Start Grant that were not from people in Scotland, and we therefore had to adapt that.”
It came as Holyrood’s Social Security Committee took evidence on the delivery of a tranche of benefits devolved to Scotland in 2016.
Last week, Scotland’s spending watchdog found there is a “significant risk” the Scottish Government will fail to deliver billions of pounds-worth of the welfare payments on time.
Auditor General Caroline Gardner said the new benefits agency had only managed to deliver its first, relatively easy payments by working “flat out” and relying on costly agency staff.
But it now faces a struggle to introduce a second wave of more complex benefits which account for 98 per cent of the £3.5bn due to be paid to 1.4m claimants each year by 2021.
Speaking to MSPs, Ms Somerville said officials had now ensured that applicants are asked “Do you live in Scotland?” right at the start of the process.
She said: “Clearly we have to test eligibility, but it’s perhaps not something that we thought we’d have to really point out as stringently as we did. The 10 per cent figure was higher than anticipated.”
She said the sheer number of applications staff had dealt with was “far higher” than anyone expected.
David Wallace, chief executive of Social Security Scotland, said there had been “lots of conversations” about the number of applications from outside Scotland, and how the system could be improved.
He added: “As a direct result of that, the application now looks different.”
He said people cannot be stopped from applying, “but the warning, as it were, is upfront around about your likely chance of eligibility, if you’re applying from a non-Scottish postcode”.
He said this was now “front and centre” of the application process, adding: “I think it does just demonstrate that we’re able to take the feedback that we’re getting on the ground and play that directly back into the system.”
Statistics show 52% (7,820) of applications for the pregnancy and baby part of the Best Start Grant were processed within 10 working days, with 21% (3,160) processed in 21 days or more.
Around two thirds of applications were successful. Of the 4,905 applications denied, 1,630 were from postcodes outside Scotland.
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