Scottish Welfare Fund
The Scottish Welfare Fund exists to support vulnerable people in Scotland when they have a crisis. It is normally a one-off grant for living expenses or household goods, but there are items which it will not fund (pdf).
Two types of grants are available under the scheme: Crisis Grants and Community Care Grants. You can read about these below, and also take a look at our FAQs (PDF).
Crisis Grants can be awarded to meet expenses to avoid an immediate threat to the health or safety of you or your family:
- In the case of an emergency, applications can be made for short-term living expenses
- In the case of a disaster, applications can be made for living expenses or household items
Living expenses are essential items such as food, heating costs, nappies, toiletries, and travel costs in case of an emergency.
Community Care Grants can be awarded to help you in the following circumstances:
- following a period in care and you aren’t able to return home without some help
- to prevent the need for you to go into care if you can’t continue to live at home without some help
- to help you set up or maintain a settled home, alongside other support to help to sustain your tenancy, after being homeless or living an unsettled way of life
- to ease exceptional pressures, over and above that of living on a low income, that you and your family may experience
- to help you care for a person released from prison or young offenders' unit on temporary release.
Applications can be made for essential items such as furniture, household equipment, travel costs, removal expenses, storage charges, connection charges for gas and electricity.
A Community Care Grant may not be awarded if you (or your partner) has savings of over £700 if you are below pension age, or £1,200 if above pension age.
Alternative Formats of Information on the Scottish Welfare Fund:
Scottish Welfare Fund Information in Sign Language Video
Scottish Welfare fund easy to read leaflet (PDF)
Scottish Welfare Fund Information Leaflet (PDF)