Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: annual update 2023-24

Decisions were made on 87,775 Community Care Grant applications in 2023-24 and 41,470 awards were made, representing an acceptance rate of 47% (Table 19), four percentage points lower than 2022-23 (Table 23). At the same time, decisions were made on 259,740 Crisis Grant applications in 2023-24 and 160,600 awards were made with an acceptance rate of 62% (Table 24), one percentage point lower than 2022-23. (Table 28).

The highest Community Care Grant acceptance rate was in Orkney (80%), and the lowest was in Midlothian (31%). Compared to 2022-23, acceptance rates increased in 13 local authorities, decreased in 18 and stayed the same in one (Table 23). The highest Crisis Grant acceptance rate was in Orkney (83%) and the lowest was in East Lothian and Falkirk (41%). Compared to 2022-23, acceptance rates increased in nine local authorities, decreased in 20 and stayed the same in three (Table 28).

Award rates have fallen in most quarters since the peak in 2021 (Table 22, Table 27, Chart 6). This is at least partly related to increasing pressure on budgets.

Chart 6: Community Care Grant and Crisis Grant acceptance rates – Quarterly

The number of Community Care Grants awarded in 2023-24 (41,460 awards) was 15% lower (7,360 awards) than in 2022-23; and the number of Crisis Grants awarded in 2021 (160,595 awards) was 14% lower (25,400 awards) than in 2022-23 (Table 21, Table 26).

During the year, Crisis Grant awards were relatively steady compared to recent years, although the usual post-Christmas peak was evident (Chart 7).

The number of Community Care Grant awards was broadly stable through the year except for the usual drop seen around the last quarter of the calendar year.

Chart 7: Number of Scottish Welfare Fund Awards – Scotland – Monthly

At local authority level, the greatest increase in Community Care Grant awards compared to 2022-23 was in Renfrewshire (7% increase) (Table 21). The greatest decrease was in East Lothian (-50%). The greatest increase in Crisis Grant awards was in Orkney (61% increase), although this is only based on relatively small numbers of awards (115) (Table 26, Table 6). The greatest decrease was in West Lothian (-39%).

In 2023-24, the most common reason for Community Care Grant application rejections remained ‘Reasons for application do not meet the conditions for an award’ (62%) (Table 30), and the most common reason for Crisis Grant application rejections remained ‘Excluded as a result of previous application history’ (28%) (Table 32).