Additional funding provided to low income families in Scotland
29 July 2020
The Scottish government has confirmed that it has allocated funding of £37.6 million to support individuals and families on low incomes over the past 12 months up to 31 March 2020 – this is an increase of 7% on the previous year.
The fund received 296,870 applications for help, with families most frequently citing the reason behind their application being that their benefits or other income had already been spent – this is an increase of 27% on the previous year.
Scottish Welfare Fund payments included £12.9 million in Crisis Grants (an increase of 24%) and £24.7 million on Community Care Grants.
Shirley-Anne Sommerville, Social Security Secretary said:
“This is further evidence that the UK Government’s benefits cuts are hitting the poorest in Scotland the hardest, with more and more people struggling just to make ends meet and being pushed to rely on food banks, or suffer from the stress of debt and rent arrears.
That’s without taking into consideration the significant financial impact that coronavirus (COVID-19)is having on some of those earning the least in our society.
We took early action in March to more than double the Scottish Welfare Fund to £80.5 million this year in response to the expected impact of coronavirus, and we have made an additional £110 million available to support people struggling to access food during the pandemic.
That funding will help local authority partners continue to support people at this time and we would encourage anyone in need of support to apply to the Scottish Welfare Fund.”
Information provided in this news article may be subject to change. Please make note of the date of publication to ensure that you are viewing up to date information.