Social Security Experience Panel: Scottish Welfare Fund experiences

About the research

This report details the key themes which emerged from a survey carried out in Scotland between 6 December 2018 and 17 January 2019. Respondents could complete this survey online, over the phone or on paper.

The survey included questions on:

• How the respondent had heard about the Scottish Welfare Fund
• Their experiences of applying for the Scottish Welfare Fund
• Things that worked well about the Scottish Welfare Fund
• Things that could have improved their experience of the Scottish Welfare Fund.

Those whose said that they didn’t have experience of applying for Scottish Welfare Fund were also given the opportunity to feed in their views, which included comments around their awareness of the fund or any barriers they had faced to applying.

About the participants

171 people responded to this survey from across 30 of the 32 Local Authorities in Scotland.

106 respondents said that they had experience of applying for the Scottish Welfare Fund. This report will focus primarily on the responses of those 106 respondents, however those who had not applied for the Scottish Welfare Fund were given the opportunity to feed in their comments and these are included in the qualitative analysis in this report.

In this report, we have included percentages to give a sense of proportion, but it should be borne in mind that these refer to only these self-selecting responses and should not be taken to represent the views of everyone who has applied for Scottish Welfare Fund. 

Of the 106 with experience of applying for the Scottish Welfare Fund, a quarter (25 per cent) said that they had applied for the Crisis Grant only and more than a quarter (28 per cent) said that they had applied for the Community Care Grant. One in five (twenty per cent) said that they had applied for both the Crisis and Community Care Grants. Two in five (40 per cent) said that they had applied for the Scottish Welfare Fund but that they didn’t know what type of grant it was for, this included some respondents who had also said they had applied for the Crisis or Community Care grants.  Where applicants are unclear what they have applied for, it is possible that their answers may relate to Crisis Grants and Community Care Grants provided previously by the DWP under the discretionary Social Fund.

More than two in five (44 per cent) of respondents said that they received “some” of what they applied for (for example if they got a payment that was less than what they applied for or if they only received some but not all of the items they applied for) (n=98). Three in ten (30 per cent) said that they received everything that they applied for. More than a quarter (27 per cent) said that their application was not successful.

Just over one in five (21 per cent) respondents who had previously applied for Scottish Welfare Fund said that they had appealed a decision on an application^[1]. Around one in eight (12 per cent) said they had appealed unsuccessfully. One in twelve (8 per cent) said they had appealed successfully. As noted above, these figures are included to give a sense of proportion only, and should not be considered representative of all Scottish Welfare Fund applicants.