Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: update to 31 March 2025

The percentage of applications and awards that were repeats were higher for Crisis Grants compared to Community Care Grants (Chart 11). The proportion of Community Care Grant applications and awards that were repeats decreased by two and three percentage points respectively between 2023-24 and 2024-25 (Table 69 and 71). At the same time, the proportion of Crisis Grant applications and awards that were repeats decreased by three and two percentage points (Table 73 and 75). The proportion of applications that were repeats decreased for Community Care Grants (from 29% in 2023-24 to 27% in 2024-25) and Crisis Grants (from 73% in 2023-24 to 70% in 2024-25).

The proportion of repeated applications and rewards stepped up in 2020 at the time the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and rates remain higher in early 2025 than they were before 2020. Part of the increase in repeats related to some relaxation in the three-application-per-year limits that are normally in place, although more recent enforcement of this will have brought back some of that downward pressure on the rate. More recent economic pressures are now likely to be the biggest reason for continued elevation of this measure.

Chart 11: Repeat applications and awards for Community Care Grants and Crisis Grants – Quarterly
This chart shows time series of the numbers of repeat applications and awards to the Scottish Welfare Fund per quarter since April 2020, separated into the two schemes.