Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: update to 31 December 2023

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 October to December 2023, £11.8 million was spent through the Scottish Welfare Fund, 12% less (£1.6 million) than the same quarter in 2022 (Table 23, Chart 8). More was spent on Community Care Grants (£7.5 million) than on Crisis Grants (£4.3 million). Compared to the same quarter of 2022, Community Care Grant expenditure increased in 11 local authorities, while Crisis Grant expenditure increased in 7 local authorities (Table 23).

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

Local authorities have been allocated £35.5 million for Scottish Welfare Fund awards in 2023-24. 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 £38.3 million by the end of December 2023, representing 99% 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 75% of their available budgets. In comparison, by the end of December 2022, local authorities had spent £40.7 million, representing 96% of the available budget, although the budget available for 2022-23 was enlarged to £38.0 million due to additional funding in the latter part of the year (Table 24, Table 26, Chart 9 and Chart 10).

The lowest percentage of budget spent (including estimated previous underspend) was 18% in Na-h Eileanan Siar. The highest were Perth & Kinross (154%), North Lanarkshire (142%), and Edinburgh (138%). Twenty-six local authorities had spent at least 75% of their estimated available budgets and therefore may be on track to spend all of their available budget for 2023-24 at current rates of expenditure (Table 26, Chart 9).

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

Chart 10 indicates that the overspend is present from the start of the year, and without greater reductions in the rate of spending, local authorities could in theory be at least £10 million overspent during the full year.

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 support refugee families arriving in Scotland under family reunion rules to settle with their family member already resident in the local authority area. Applicants can 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 have amounted to around £379,080 from 14 May 2018 to 31 December 2023.