Scottish Welfare Fund

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The Scottish Government and local authorities spent £56 million last year to provide lifeline support and to help mitigate UK Government welfare policies, according to official figures. The annual update of Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics for 2022-23 includes annual statistics on Community Ca

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Improvements to the way crisis support is delivered in Scotland have been set out in a new plan. The Scottish Welfare Fund provides a vital safety net which has paid out more than £380 million in emergency funds to more than half a million households over the last ten years.

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Local authorities received 121,090 applications for Discretionary Housing Payments from April 2020 to February 2021 and had spent or committed to spend £74.2 million, according to new figures on the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF). Discretionary Housing Payments are awarded by local authoriti

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The amount paid out in crisis grants to people in need increased by more than three quarters in the early stages of lockdown, according to the latest Scottish Government figures. The Scottish Welfare Fund awarded £5.2 million in crisis grants between April and June 2020, up 77% on the sam

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People on low incomes will be eligible to receive a new £500 grant from the Scottish Government if asked to self-isolate. The new Self-Isolation Support Grant will help those who would lose income if they needed to self-isolate, such as those unable to carry out their work from home.

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A 59% increase in applications for crisis grants in Scotland in March shows that low-income families are struggling to cope with the impacts of the coronavirus crisis, social security secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has said. Monthly Scottish Welfare Fund figures show that crisis grant applic

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The Scottish Government spent over £100 million to mitigate the effects of UK Government austerity during 2019, new figures have revealed. Social security secretary Shirley-Ann Somerville has claimed that the money could have been better spent on more anti-poverty measures.

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The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) has responded to the new figures which revealed that applications for crisis grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund increased by 12% in the quarter until June compared with the corresponding period last year. Jeremy Hewer, SFHA policy lead, said:

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