Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: Annual Update: 2021-22

Characteristics of Households in Receipt of Awards

Since the scheme began in April 2013, 470,170 unique households received at least one award from the Scottish Welfare Fund. More households have received a Crisis Grant (349,715, 74% of households who have received a grant) than a Community Care Grant (258,820, 55% of households who have received a grant) (Table 62a).

Since the scheme began in April 2013, over half of all awards have gone to single person households (53%), and over a fifth to single parent households (22%) (Table 62b, Chart 15). In comparison, the latest household estimates for Scotland indicate that only 37% of households are single people, and 6% of households are single parent families^[6]. A quarter of Scottish Welfare Fund awards have gone to couples, couples with children or other types of household (25%), whereas over half of households in Scotland are estimated to fall into these categories (58%). In total around a third (34%) awards have gone to households containing children.