Crisis and community care grants

The Scottish Welfare Fund is a discretionary scheme administered by local authorities. The fund is split into crisis grants and community care grants. Any grant awarded is based on our assessment of your circumstances.

If you are on benefits or a low income and are having difficulty because of an exceptional situation or in meeting one-off expenses, the Scottish Welfare fund may help you.

For more information on who qualifies, the type of grants available, how to apply and details of other support on offer, please access the relevant sections using the buttons below. Advisors or support workers applying on behalf of a client can also access information and make an application using the buttons below

You may be asked to upload evidence on your application form, help with this is provided by accessing the ‘Help with uploading evidence’ button below.

If you want to request a review of a decision already made on a crisis grant or community care grant application, please see our Request a review page.

You must be 16 or over and on a low income to apply for help from the Scottish Welfare Fund and normally be entitled to one of the following benefits (although this is not essential):

Universal Credit
Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit and Savings Credit)

The severity of your situation and the likely impact on you and your family will be the key test that will determine if you qualify for a crisis grant.

Retaining or establishing a settled way of life in the community is the key test for qualifying for a community care grant.

If you are in receipt of Universal Credit you should apply for a short-term benefit advance from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). This must be done within 21 days of your Universal Credit claim date.

Who won't qualify

You won’t qualify for a grant if you:

have made a claim for a DWP benefit and it is delayed. If this happens you can apply for a short-term benefit advance from the DWP
you have already received 3 crisis grants in the last 12 months. Only in exceptional circumstances will we be able to consider a further one off payment
have already applied for the same item in the last 28 days, unless your circumstances have changed.

You can check your eligibility for either of these grants by selecting the relevant grant button below.

Crisis grants can provide people with a safety net in the event of a disaster or emergency and can help with:

a crisis at home due to fire or flood
money being lost or stolen
transport costs to visit a sick child in hospital
escaping domestic abuse

Please note that if you qualify for a crisis grant, you may be given a cash grant or another form of support such as furniture, or a voucher for essential food, fuel or clothing.

Timescale for response

It is important that you provide all information needed and the reason for the application. This will allow us to assess your claim as soon as possible.

We will notify you of the outcome of the application by phone, text or email within two working days of your application being received. This may take longer during busy periods or if you haven't provided all the information and/or evidence we have asked for.

Support providers can also be told of the outcome of an application if this is made clear during the application process.

You can check your eligibility, apply for a crisis grant, and track the progress of an application using the button below.

Crisis grant application

Community care grants can help people leaving care, hospital, or prison to live on their own, or to remain in their own home without having to go into care. These grants can also help families provide a safe and secure home by providing essential items such as:

cooker (delivered and installed)
bed.

We will carry out checks to make sure you need the items applied for. These checks can include:

getting information from other departments and agencies involved in representing your or helping you with your application
carrying out home visits before an award is made

Please note if you qualify for a community care grant, you will be given goods and not cash. Cash will only be given in the rare situation where we are unable to source an item. Items will not be replaced due to wear and tear unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Timescale for response

It is important that you provide all the information, items needed and the reason for the application. This will allow us to assess your claim as soon as possible.

We will notify you of the outcome of the application by phone, text or email within 15 working days of your application being received. This may take longer during busy periods or if you haven't provided all the information and/or evidence we have asked for.

Support providers can also be told of the outcome of an application if this is made clear during the application process.

You can check your eligibility, apply for a community care grant, and track the progress of an application using the button below.

Community care grant application

Further support and guidance on benefits, debt and financial wellbeing is available to you and your family using the links below.

Benefit calculator

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction application

Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP)

Universal Credit

Social Security Scotland - Benefits

DWP - Budgeting Loans

DWP - Short term benefit advance

Money Matters Advice Service

Money is not the only problem

Help with uploading evidence

You will be asked to upload evidence on the application form. We can accept jpegs and pdf files but we advise pdfs as the file size is smaller.

Please don’t take photos of your PC screen or phone screen as these can be blurry. If you need to do this you should use the screenshot/print screen function on your PC or phone.

When you take a photo of a document such as a bank statement sometimes the file sizes are too big, especially if you have to upload a lot of different images to your form. This can cause the form to fail and we advise converting jpegs to pdfs. You can do this in the following ways.

On an Android phone

select image you want
from the menu select print image
select Save as pdf
choose where to save it
save

On an iPhone

select the image you want
tap the sharing button and select Print
at the Printer options screen, use a spreading gesture with your fingers on the image preview to show Save as pdf
select Share the converted photo as PDF and choose where to save it

On a PC

right click on the icon of the image
select Convert to Adobe pdf
click on the Save file icon in the top left hand corner
select where to save it
name it
save

Submit evidence

For more information visit the Scottish Government website

Information sharing

We will share information with other organisations including the Department for Work and Pensions (DPW) and Social Work Resources when considering your application.