Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: annual update 2023-24

Unless otherwise stated, all expenditure information in this publication is based on the date of decision. As such it should be regarded as committed spend, rather than actual spend. Where a case has been reviewed, expenditure is assigned to the quarter of the initial decision rather than the review date. Further discussion of expenditure data quality is included in the Data Quality section of the publication.

Local authorities submit monthly management information returns to the Scottish Government. These returns also contain expenditure information on Community Care Grants and Crisis Grants. Chart 8 shows that expenditure recorded in the quarterly monitoring matches closely with the information in the monthly returns at Scotland level until March 2024.

Chart 8: Expenditure on the Scottish Welfare Fund – Comparison of official statistics and monthly management information – Scotland – Monthly

Between 1 January and 31 March 2024:

£11.4 million was spent through the Scottish Welfare Fund, 25% less than in January to March 2023 when £15.3 million was spent (Table 39, Chart 8). Expenditure on Community Care Grants decreased by 30% (£6.6 million compared to £9.5 million) and expenditure on Crisis Grants decreased by 17% (£4.8 million compared to £5.8 million).

During 2023-24:
The available budget for awards in 2023-24 was £38.7 million, which included £35.5 million allocated by Scottish Government and £3.2 million of underspend carried forward from 2022-23 (Table 40). A total of £49.9 million was spent on Scottish Welfare Fund awards during 2023-24 (Table 38), including £31.4 million on Community Care Grants (Table 34) and £18.5 million on Crisis Grants (Table 36). This is an overall decrease in expenditure of 11%, with Community Care Grant  expenditure decreasing by 9% and Crisis Grant expenditure decreasing by 13% respectively compared to 2022-23.

Expenditure on Community Care Grants increased in nine local authorities, the greatest relative increase being in Fife (42% increase, Table 34). Expenditure decreased in 23 local authorities, the greatest relative decrease occurring in East Lothian (52% decrease). Expenditure on Crisis Grants increased in 9 local authorities, the greatest relative increase being in Orkney (85%, Table 36). Expenditure decreased in nine local authorities, with the greatest relative decrease in West Lothian (50% decrease).

The average award value for Community Care Grants increased from £711 in 2022-23 to £758 in 2023-24. The average award value for Crisis Grants increased from £114 in 2022-23 to £115 in 2023-24.

Expenditure compared to budget:
As a whole, local authorities spent 129% of the available budget (the amount allocated by Scottish Government plus underspend from previous years) (Table 42, Chart 9). In comparison, at the end of 2022-23 131% of the available budget had been spent, although the budget available for the Scottish Welfare Fund in 2022-23 was £4.0 million higher than in 2023-24 (Table 40, Table 42).

Expenditure varied considerably between the local authorities. Only five local authorities spent less than 90% of their budgets in 2023-24 compared to six in 2022-23, showing the continuing pressure on budgets during 2023-24. The local authorities that had spent the smallest proportions of their budgets were Na-h Eileanan Siar (25%), Highland (37%) and North Ayrshire (71%). Collective underspend for the year was £3.1 million, which is slightly less less than at the end of 2022-23 (£3.2million). Ignoring underspend, only four local authorities were within their annual allocation; these were Aberdeenshire, Na-h Eileanan Siar, Highland and Inverclyde.

Twenty-four local authorities spent more than their budget (Table 42, Chart 9): Perth and Kinross (215%), North Lanarkshire (194%), Fife (190%), and Edinburgh (176%), all spent more than 175% of their budget. In total local authorities overspent their available budgets for 2023-24 by around £14.3 million, £2.1 million less than the overspend for 2022-23 (£16.5 million, Table 40).

Chart 9: Proportion of 2023-24 budget spent as at 30 September 2023

Chart 10 indicates that the overspend was greater during the early part of the year before declining towards year end.
 

Chart 10: Cumulative expenditure on the Scottish Welfare Fund – Monthly – 2023-24

Family Reunion Crisis Grants:
Delivery of Family Reunion Crisis Grants commenced on 14 May 2018, and ceased on 31 March 2024. The grants supported refugee families arriving in Scotland under family reunion rules to settle with their family member already resident in the local authority area. Applicants could apply for both Crisis Grants and Community Care Grants through this scheme. Based on management information supplied to Scottish Government by local authorities, these grants amounted to around £423,195 actross the lifetime of the scheme from 14 May 2018 to 31 March 2024.