Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: annual update 2022-2023

Scottish Welfare Fund awards tend to go to applicants living in more deprived areas of Scotland. Around one in five people in Scotland live in the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland, as defined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). However, in 2022-23 around half of Community Care Grants (51%) and Crisis Grants (50%) were awarded to applicants living in these areas. In comparison, around 2% of Community Care Grants and 3% of Crisis Grants were awarded to applicants from the 20% least deprived areas (Table 59 and Table 61).

Community Care Grant applicants in more deprived areas also tended to receive a higher average award value than applicants in less deprived areas in 2022-23 (Chart 14). Applicants in the 0% most deprived data zones received an average award that was around £82 higher than applicants in the 10% least deprived data zones (£718 compared to £636, Table 59). For Crisis Grants, average awards were around 10% higher in the least deprived datazones. (Table 61).

Chart 14: Distribution of awards and average award value by SIMD Quintile rankings of applicant’s postcode – 2022-23