Scottish Welfare Fund crisis grants

A Scottish Welfare Fund Crisis Grant is a one-off payment from your local council to help in an emergency or disaster, such as having no money for food or heating. You apply to your council, not the Scottish Government, and you do not pay the grant back. You can usually get up to 3 Crisis Grants in any 12 months.

What is the Scottish Welfare Fund?

The Scottish Welfare Fund was set up on 1 April 2013 and is run by every council in Scotland. It offers two kinds of help:

• Crisis Grants, for urgent short-term needs after an emergency or disaster
• Community Care Grants, to help you set up a settled home or stay in the home you have

Both are grants, so there is nothing to pay back. The fund has a set budget each year, which means councils can use priority ratings and may not be able to help everyone who applies. Your council may also point you to other help, including benefits from Social Security Scotland.

Who can apply?

You can apply if you are:

• 16 or over
• on a low income, which does not mean you have to be on benefits
• living in the council’s area, about to move there, or homeless

There is no set income figure. mygov.scot says you are more likely to qualify if you get Universal Credit, Pension Credit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance or Income Support, or if your income is about the same as someone who does.

The council will look at any money or savings you could use to get through the crisis. For a Community Care Grant, savings over £700 (or £1,200 if you get a pension) make a grant less likely.

What can the grants pay for?

Crisis Grants

A Crisis Grant is for an emergency or a disaster where there would be a risk to your wellbeing, or your family’s, without help. It usually covers food, gas or electricity. After a disaster such as a fire or flood, it can also provide items like a cooker or furniture.

Examples given on mygov.scot and in the statutory guidance include:

• you have no money for food or heating
• there has been a fire or flood at home
• money has been lost or stolen
• you are leaving an abusive partner and need help to move away
• you are a grandparent or other relative who has taken on a child and are waiting for benefits to transfer
• you have a gap in your normal income because of redundancy or a change at work

The guidance also says people should not be expected to use high-cost credit, such as doorstep loans or payday loans, to cover living costs.

How often. You can usually get 3 Crisis Grants in a rolling 12 months, counted across all councils, unless there are exceptional circumstances. In a couple, each partner can get 3. If you are waiting for a benefit to be paid, an award for living costs usually covers two weeks at a time.

Community Care Grants

A Community Care Grant helps you live independently. You may qualify if, for example, you are leaving care or prison, you have been homeless, you are escaping domestic abuse, you are under great pressure and need help to keep your home, or a child’s health is at risk.

Grants are usually for items rather than cash, such as a bed and bedding, a cooker, a fridge, a washing machine, furniture, clothing, removal costs or gas and electricity connection charges. There is no yearly limit on the number of Community Care Grants you can get.

What can the fund not pay for?

The statutory guidance lists things the fund cannot cover. The most important for anyone in debt is that it cannot pay debts, including rent, mortgage or council tax arrears, water charges or the costs of applying for bankruptcy. The one exception is a prepayment meter, where a council can pay an emergency amount to keep your supply on until your next payment.

It also cannot pay for rent deposits or rent in advance, court fines, most phones, or medical items.

The guidance also says your council should not refuse a grant because you owe it money, such as council tax arrears, and the grant should not be used to pay that debt.

If debts are the reason money keeps running out, a grant can only help for a short time. Free debt advice can look at the bigger picture with you, and Council Tax Reduction may lower one of your biggest bills. A grant can also matter later: the £150 fee for applying for bankruptcy (called sequestration in Scotland) is waived if you have had Scottish Welfare Fund help in the last 3 months. See sequestration in Scotland.

How do you apply, and how long does it take?

You apply to your local council. Each council has its own process, and mygov.scot links to them all. Councils usually have an online form, and may also take applications on paper, by email or by phone. Contact the council if you need help to apply or want to check how your application is going.

If you apply for the same thing within 28 days of a decision and nothing relevant has changed, the council does not have to consider it again. If the award was not enough, asking for a review is usually the better route.

The rules set out how quickly councils should decide:

• Crisis Grants: by the end of the next working day after they have the information they need. mygov.scot says most councils decide within 2 working days, although some are taking longer.
• Community Care Grants: within 15 working days after the council has all the information it needs.

A working day runs from 9am to 4.45pm and does not include weekends or public holidays. Your decision letter must explain how to ask for a review.

What if you disagree with the decision?

There are two stages, and neither can take away or reduce a grant you have already been given.

1. Ask the council for a review

Ask within 20 working days of being told the decision. The request should usually be in writing, by letter or email, although councils can accept other formats, for example if a disability, health condition or literacy makes writing hard. Councils can accept a late request if you have a good reason, such as illness.

Someone who was not involved in the first decision looks at your case again. Councils should decide Crisis Grant reviews within 2 working days and Community Care Grant reviews within 15 working days.

2. Ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

If you are still unhappy after the council’s review, you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) for an independent review. It is free and not part of the council. Ask within one month of receiving the council’s review decision, although the SPSO can sometimes accept requests after this.

You can apply online, by post (write FREEPOST SPSO on the envelope) or by calling 0800 014 7299, Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm. The SPSO can change the council’s decision or tell it to decide again. It aims to decide Crisis Grant reviews within 1 working day, and Community Care Grant reviews within 21 working days, of getting all the information it needs.

If you are unhappy with how you were treated, rather than the decision, use the council’s complaints procedure first. You can then take the complaint to the SPSO.

If the pressure of all this is affecting how you feel, debt and your mental health has practical steps and places to get support.

Official sources

• mygov.scot: Scottish Welfare Fund, help with living costs
• mygov.scot: Crisis Grant, how to apply
• mygov.scot: Community Care Grant, how to apply
• gov.scot: Scottish Welfare Fund statutory guidance (updated April 2026)
• Scottish Public Services Ombudsman: Scottish Welfare Fund independent reviews