by Democrat reporter
The SNP have been accused of “turning a blind eye to fraud”, after shock figures revealed their welfare quango reported just 29 fraudulent claims in two and a half years.
Figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives via freedom of information requests show that Social Security Scotland (SSS) reported just two cases of benefit fraud in 2023-24, 12 in 2024-25 and 15 so far in 2025-26.
This comes despite nearly two million payments being made by SSS in relation to Adult Disability Payment, Scottish Child Payment and the Funeral Support Payment in that time.
The UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimates that around 2% of benefit payments are made fraudulently. Applying this figure in Scotland would suggest that around 40,000 fraudulent payments were made since the start of 2023-24 – totalling an estimated £121 million.
Shadow social security secretary Alexander Stewart slammed the “pitiful” detection rate and accused SNP ministers of letting down hard-working Scots who are paying ever-rising taxes to fund an “unsustainable welfare bill”.
Scottish Conservative shadow social security secretary Alexander Stewart MSP, right, said: “These pitiful figures tell us that the SNP are effectively turning a blind eye to benefit fraud.
“Hardworking Scots are facing ever-rising taxes to fund the Nationalists’ ballooning and unsustainable welfare bill.
“It’s a further kick in the teeth to them to learn that some of it is going to claimants who are cheating the system.
“The SNP’s quango should be pulling out all the stops to clamp down on benefit fraud. Its failure to do so is a complete dereliction of duty.
“The money which ministers are allowing to be squandered could – and should – be spent on cutting people’s bills or improving the frontline services which are in crisis after 18 years of SNP mismanagement.”