Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: update to 30 June 2024

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.

During April to June 2024, £11.6 million was spent through the Scottish Welfare Fund, 14% less (£1.9 million) than the same quarter in 2023 (Table 23, Chart 8). More was spent on Community Care Grants (£7.2 million) than on Crisis Grants (£4.4 million). Compared to the same quarter of 2023, Community Care Grant expenditure increased in eight local authorities, while Crisis Grant expenditure increased in 12 local authorities (Table 23).

Chart 8: Expenditure on the Scottish Welfare Fund – Comparison of official statistics and monthly management information – Scotland – Monthly
This chart shows the time series of the expenditure on CCG and Crisis Grants per quarter since April 2019.

Local authorities have been allocated £35.5 million for Scottish Welfare Fund awards in 2024-25. There was also an estimated underspend of £3.1 million carried forward (see the Data Quality section for issues relating to estimation of underspend). Local authorities had spent £11.6 million by the end of June 2024, representing 30% of the estimated available budget. At this point in the year, if spending were consistent in each quarter we would expect local authorities to have spent 25% of their available budgets. In comparison, by the end of June 2023, local authorities had spent £13.2 million, representing 35% of the available budget (Table 24, Table 26, Chart 9 and Chart 10).

The lowest percentage of budget spent (including estimated previous underspend) was in Na-h Eileanan Siar (4%). The highest were Fife (57%), Perth & Kinross (50%), and Midlothian (48%). Twenty-two local authorities had spent at least 25% of their estimated available budgets and therefore may be on track to spend all of their available budget for 2024-25 at current rates of expenditure (Table 26, Chart 9).

Chart 9: Proportion of 2023-24 budget spent as at 30 June 2024
This chart shows the proportion of budget spent during 2023-24 by local authority.

Chart 10 shows that the shared overspend from the start of the year, which if continued would result in £7.7 million overspend by the end of the year.

Chart 10: Cumulative expenditure on the Scottish Welfare Fund – Monthly – 2024-25
This chart shows the time series of the expenditure throughout 2024-25 in comparison to a theoretical steady budget-only spend.