Figures have been rounded to the nearest five for disclosure control.

Some values are missing from this dataset. These values have been suppressed where they would disclose small cohorts.

The data used to produce these statistics are extracted from the Social Security case management system. Extracts from this system are also used on a daily basis for internal reporting within Social Security Scotland. As such, the data is checked daily for consistency with previous extracts (i.e. do applications, decisions and payments figures increase as expected over time, and are they in proportion to each other) and compared to other sources of information such as the number of payment instructions reported by the finance team.

Quality assurance and cleaning has been carried out on the variables used in the official statistics:

• Checking for duplicate and missing application references
• Checking application dates, processing times and payment times are within the expected ranges
• Check that payment date is present where a payment value is present
• Removal of a small number of test applications which were used to test the case management system.

Once the data is aggregated and copied into the publication and supporting Excel tables, the final statistics are quality assured by a different member of the statistics team. The final documents are checked by the lead statistician.

1) Rounding and disclosure control

Application and outcome figures have been rounded to the nearest five for disclosure control. Data has been suppressed where it would disclose small cohorts.

2) Missing and duplicate applications The data comes from 100% data cut of the case management system. The data cut was checked for applications where the fields relating to application date and the outcome and payment of the application were blank. These applications would represent temporary ‘prospect cases’, which are created when clients contact Social Security Scotland without a National Insurance number, and are later replaced once a National Insurance number is received from the applicant. Any such applications are therefore duplicates and would are excluded from the statistics.

Clients may make repeated applications to Young Carer Grant in certain circumstances. For instance, if their initial application is withdrawn or denied. This means that there can be several applications from the same client in the data cut. For these statistics we have retained all of these applications.

3) Authorisation and Payment

In this dataset, the date that applications were processed by client advisors is the date used to produce statistics of processed applications. After applications are authorised for payment by client advisors, the decision is approved by a manager, and then a payment is issued. In some cases, payments will be issued on the same day that payments are authorised by client advisors, however in other cases there can be a delay before payments are issued. Clients should receive money in their nominated account within four working days after payment is issued.

In this dataset, we report on the value of payments that have been issued by the end of each month and not the payments successfully received by the applicants.

A very small number of payments are made manually to clients. These manual payments do not appear in the administrative data extracts used for this dataset and are therefore not counted in the payment statistics.

The Young Carer Grant is the first benefit of its kind in the UK, therefore there are no comparable statistics for this.

Further information on applications, processing times, and payments. can be found in the associated publication.

On 20 September 2017, the First Minister announced a new package of support for young carers in Scotland. This package included a cash payment for young carers providing 16 hours or more of care a week to someone normally paid a qualifying disability benefit. In accordance with the powers set out in Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, Scottish ministers set out regulations for the new Young Carer Grant on 15 October 2019.

Social Security Scotland – the executive agency of Scottish Government responsible for delivering social security benefits for Scotland – began taking applications for Young Carer Grant on 21 October 2019.

Further information on the Young Carer Grant. benefit can be found on the Scottish Government Website.

These statistics are updated every 3 months. These updates coincide with our quarterly publications on Young Carer Grant. The publication can be found on the Scottish Government website.

Data are collected, validated, and published in as timely a manner as possible in accordance with the Statistics Code of Practice. Data are published quarterly and can be found on the Scottish Government website.

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.