Benefit information.

Summary

The request sought confirmation of social security benefit rates, average monthly support per family unit, and total expenditure data from the Isle of Man Treasury. The authority refused to provide new calculations or summaries, citing that the information is already publicly accessible online or would require substantial compilation to produce.

Key Facts

• The Treasury refused to provide average monthly financial support per family unit due to the substantial compilation required to cross-reference different benefits within families.
• Information regarding benefit rates, exceptional needs grants, and total expenditure is already available on the government website.
• The request was received on 18 March 2025 and amended on 28 April 2025.
• The final outcome was determined on 5 June 2025 with no information sent as all requested data was deemed exempt or already accessible.
• The Treasury does not hold a consolidated record of how many benefits a single family receives.

Data Disclosed

• 2025/26
• 2024/25
• 18 March 2025
• 28 April 2025
• 5 June 2025
• section 20
• section 8(3)(c)
• section 11(3)(b)
• page 27
• page 76

Exemptions Cited

• Section 20: Information already reasonably accessible to the applicant.
• Section 8(3)(c): Request would require substantial compilation or collation of information.
• Section 11(3)(b): Practical refusal reason applies due to the volume of work required.

Original Request

Financial Support: a. Please confirm whether the standard amounts of financial support (e.g. spending money or allowances) for adult individuals for 2025/26, as detailed in the downloadable documents on https://www.gov.im/socialsecurity, represent the complete and final rates for all social security benefits. If additional allowances or discretionary payments exist that are not listed, please provide a brief summary of these. b. Using the data in the "Benefit Claims and Expenditure" document (available at https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/government/open-data/economy/), please provide the average monthly financial support per family unit for the most recent year available, if this can be calculated from existing data without substantial compilation. If this is not feasible, please confirm whether such data is held in a readily accessible format. Total Costs: Recognizing the challenges in compiling comprehensive cost data, I would like to narrow this request. Please provide the total  expenditure on social security benefits (as reported in the "Benefit Claims and Expenditure" document) for the most recent financial year available. If data on housing or integration schemes is held separately but readily accessible, please include a summary of those costs or direct me to the relevant public source. 

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Freedom of Information
Seyrsnys Fysseree

The Treasury Government Office,
Douglas Isle of Man, IM1 3PU

Telephone: (01624) 685605 Email: FOI.Treasury@gov.im

Government Website: www.gov.im

Our ref: 4516633 5 June 2025

Dear ###

We write further to your request, received 18 March 2025 and amended on 28 April 2025, which states:

"Financial Support:
a. Please confirm whether the standard amounts of financial support (e.g. spending money or allowances) for adult individuals for 2025/26, as detailed in the downloadable documents on https://www.gov.im/socialsecurity, represent the complete and final rates for all social security benefits. If additional allowances or discretionary payments exist that are not listed, please provide a brief summary of these.

b. Using the data in the "Benefit Claims and Expenditure" document (available at https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/government/open-data/economy/), please provide the average monthly financial support per family unit for the most recent year available, if this can be calculated from existing data without substantial compilation. If this is not feasible, please confirm whether such data is held in a readily accessible format.

Total Costs:
Recognizing the challenges in compiling comprehensive cost data, I would like to narrow this request. Please provide the total expenditure on social security benefits (as reported in the "Benefit Claims and Expenditure" document) for the most recent financial year available. If data on housing or integration schemes is held separately but readily accessible, please include a summary of those costs or direct me to the relevant public source. "

Our response to you is as follows:

Financial support
a. Under section 20 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you, whether free of charge or on payment of a fee.

Information in relation to the benefit rates which are not listed in the Benefit Rates and Allowances leaflet is available online and these can be accessed via the following web links: Exceptional Needs Grants and Budgeting Loans – page 27

Free TV Licences and TV Licence Payments – page 76

Insolvency and Cessation of Business Payments

Redundancy Payment

b. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible in this instance complying with this part of your request for information would require Treasury to undertake substantial compilation or collation of information that it holds, which Treasury is not required to do under section 8(3)(c) of the Act.

In these circumstances, as previously advised, the Treasury may refuse a request on the grounds that a practical refusal reason applies under section 11(3)(b) of the Act.

The reason why collating this information would require substantial compilation is because a 'family' could be in receipt of different benefits e.g. one family member could be in receipt of a pension and another on disability living allowance. A different family may only be in receipt of child benefit and so on. We do not keep a record of how many benefits one family receives and would have to do significant compilation of various manual and electronic records to collate the requested information.

The process the Treasury would need to undertake to compile these records would be a substantial undertaking, which is something we are not required to do under the Act.

Total costs Under section 20 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you, whether free of charge or on payment of a fee.

All of the information you are interested in, including the benefits rate listed in part a. above, are available online in the Benefit and Claims Expenditure document, which is available from the following web link:

Benefit and Claims Expenditure (excel) – the total for each financial year up until 2024/25 is available in the row titled “Totals”.

In relation to data on housing and integration schemes, as previously advised, the Treasury does not hold the information requested in the final part of your FOI. This is because the Treasury does not administer integration schemes and although help with housing costs is an integral element of income related benefits, such as Income Support or Employed Person’s Allowance, we cannot provide an amount that is awarded specifically for housing. As this is not recorded and it is not possible to attribute which costs are for housing for all claims. Please note Treasury does not provide housing therefore we have worked on the assumption that you are interested in any information specifically relating to housing costs. For these reasons we need to

apply a practical refusal reason to this part of your request under section 11(3)(a) of the Act (information not held).

Please quote the reference number 4516633 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.