Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: update to 30 September 2024

In the latest quarter, local authorities awarded households a total of £11.1 million in Scottish Welfare Fund grants. More than a third of awards were made to families with children, while more than half were made to single person households with no children.

During July to September 2024, local authorities received 19,820 applications for Community Care Grants, a decrease of 14% compared to July to September 2023. At the same time, local authorities made 8,795 Community Care Grant awards, spending £6.9 million, both decreases of 17% compared to July to September 2023. Local authorities received 59,675 Crisis Grant applications in July to September 2024, a decrease of 9% compared to July to September 2023. At the same time, local authorities made 37,040 Crisis Grant awards, an 11% decrease, spending £4.2 million, 13% less than in July to September 2023.

During July to September 2024, 10% of Community Care Grant awards were repeats, and 60% of Crisis Grant awards were repeats, three and four percentage points lower, respectively, than July to September 2023.

From July to September 2024, 92% of Community Care Grant applications and 95% of Crisis Grant applications were processed within target times.

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 from 2023-24. Of the estimated total £38.6 million available for awards, £22.7 million (59%) had been spent in the first half of the year.

We have previously highlighted data quality issues with the official statistics, discrepancies between the official statistics and management information, and quality issues for certain local authorities (described in the data quality section).