Welfare

More parents have been able to start work or progress their careers thanks to an initiative to expand access to school-age childcare, according to a new report. Eight childcare providers across Scotland received a share of almost £600,000 from the Scottish Government to help 650 children from

Councillors on Fife Council's Levenmouth Area Committee have agreed to support three worthwhile projects using cash from the area’s Local Community Planning (LCPB) Anti-Poverty fund.

More than 38,000 payments have been made to families to help with the costs of early learning and starting school. Families who qualify for Scottish Child Payment are now automatically awarded Best Start Grant Early Learning Payment and School Age Payment when their child becomes eligible, without t

An online tool designed to ensure Scots are receiving all the benefits they are entitled to has identified £43 million in unclaimed money over the past year.

The families of more than 316,000 under-16s were benefitting from Scottish Child Payment by the end of June this year, according to the latest official statistics. New figures published today show the payment of £25 per week, which is unique in the UK, was reaching 316,190 - an increase of mor

People living in North Lanarkshire who face financial hardship are being encouraged to contact the council’s Tackling Poverty Team to make sure they are getting all the benefits they are due. This year an additional £40 million was secured for residents from advice services.

Tenants have received a million-pound boost after Thenue Housing staff helped them unlock access to a huge amount of benefits.

Philip Whyte, director of IPPR Scotland, discusses the need for the Scottish Government to scrap the two-child limit for Universal Credit or Child Tax Credits. With Keir Starmer’s refusal to commit to scrapping it should Labour form the next UK government, the two-child limit has understa

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

Bield has appointed two new income advice officers to help its tenants navigate the complex process of grant applications. Since joining the organisation at the end of 2022, Scott Alexander and Rebecca Summers have utilised their extensive expertise to drive over £60,000 in savings for te

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.

A total of £46.9 billion was spent last year on public services to help tackle poverty, deliver fair pay deals, and support people displaced by the war in Ukraine, provisional figures have shown. The 2022-23 Provisional Outturn compares actual spending with the funding commitments set out in t

At a time when unclaimed welfare benefits throughout the UK reached a figure of £18.7 billion, Argyll Community Housing Association’s (ACHA) Welfare Rights team has secured almost £3.8 million for 1,268 households across Argyll and Bute in the last 12 months.

A new report which details the Scottish Government's progress to reduce child poverty has highlighted that too many children in Scotland still don’t have access to the basic essentials, according to IPPR Scotland.

Housing minister Paul McLennan has called on the UK Government to increase in local housing allowance rates (LHA) to avoid a surge in homelessness. Used to calculate Universal Credit payments for private tenants, LHA has been frozen in cash terms since 2020 and the freeze is due to continu