Scottish Welfare Fund

The amount given in crisis grants increased by more than a third in one quarter as low-income families were provided with more than £3 million to cover emergencies.

The Scottish Government spent over £100 million to mitigate the effects of UK Government austerity during 2019, new figures have revealed. Social security secretary Shirley-Ann Somerville has claimed that the money could have been better spent on more anti-poverty measures.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) has responded to the new figures which revealed that applications for crisis grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund increased by 12% in the quarter until June compared with the corresponding period last year. Jeremy Hewer, SFHA policy lead, said:

Campaigners are calling for an increase to the Scottish Welfare Fund budget after new statistics released show a rising number of Scots are accessing emergency cash to help pay for food or heating.

New figures released by the Scottish Government's annual Health Survey have indicated that more people living in Scotland have been worried about running out of food in the past year.

Applications for crisis grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund increased by 11% in 2018/19 as the cost of living crisis and Scotland’s “housing emergency” saw more people turn to the fund for help.

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland said the underlying causes of poverty must be tackled as new figures revealed nearly a third of a million low income households accessed emergency funding to help with the costs of essentials such as food and heating in the past six years. The Scotti

More than £181 million in emergency funding has been accessed by low income households in Scotland since 2013. From when the Scottish Welfare Fund scheme began on 1 April 2013 until 30 September 2018, a total of 316,095 individual households have received awards totalling £181.6 million.

Shirley-Anne Somerville A total of 306,305 low income households in Scotland have been helped to pay for essential items such as food and heating through emergency grant funding since 2013.

Graeme Brown Housing and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland has lamented new figures which reveal that nearly 300,000 households have been helped by emergency relief from the Scottish Welfare Fund.

More than 285,000 households in financial difficulty have received welfare assistance from the Scottish Government over the past five years, new statistics have shown. Since its launch on 1 April 2013, the Scottish Welfare Fund has issued awards to 285,720 individual households totalling £155.8 mil

Low income families have received awards of more than £148 million since the creation of the Scottish Welfare Fund in April 2013. The Scottish Welfare Fund comprises community care grants and crisis grants.

Shelter Scotland has said the latest Scottish Welfare Fund statistics from the Scottish Government show the human cost of the housing crisis and welfare reform. The latest figures cover the period from April-June 2017 and show a marked increase on the same period last year.

Jeane Freeman More than a quarter of a million individual low-income households have received awards totalling £132.6 million from the Scottish Welfare Fund since its inception in 2013.

Jeane Freeman More than £26 million in grants have been issued in nine months through the Scottish Welfare Fund to help Scottish households in need.