Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: Update to 31 December 2022

Destination of SWF Awards

Since the scheme began in April 2013, most funds have been directed to Community Care Grants in almost every quarter, although, even before the advent of the Covid pandemic, there was a general increase in the proportion of money being advanced via Crisis Grants (Chart 16).

It has been seen that Crisis Grant awards increased during periods of high Covid infections, most notably in the early part of the pandemic, where more than two-thirds of SWF payments were made via Crisis Grants. Latterly, this may be related to periods of self-isolation for people who didn’t qualify for Self-isolation Support Grants, but may more widely be related to support required for people whose earnings had fallen. Conversely, the drop seen in Crisis payments seen in July 2022 was at least partly due to cost of living payments being made.

Chart 16: Proportion of SWF spend by scheme – Quarterly