Local authorities underspent Scottish Welfare Fund’s £60 million budget by £10 million in the year to 31 March 2021

However, despite the underspend, crisis grant expenditure increased 50 per cent compared to the previous year to reach £20 million

Annual Scottish Welfare Fund statistics for 2020/2021 show that £10 million of the estimated £60 million budget for the year remained unspent by 31 March 2021.

In Scottish Welfare Fund statistics: Annual Update: 2020/21, the Scottish Government provides annual figures for applications, awards, expenditure and review data, principally for community care grants and crisis grants.

While the government highlights that local authorities had a budget of £59.5 million available for awards in 2020/2021 - made up of £57.5 million (including a £22 million Covid-19 allocation) plus a £2 million underspend carried forward from 2019/2020 - it reports that councils spent just £49.5 million (83 per cent) by 31 March 2021. This compares to spending up to 31 March 2020 when councils had awarded grants that exceeded the available budget for the year of £34.9 million.

In addition, the statistics provide further breakdowns of spending on community care grants and crisis grants in 2020/2021 which include that -

• local authorities received 84,325 applications for community care grants (15 per cent more than 2019/20) and made 48,095 awards (14 per cent more than the previous year);
• expenditure on community care grant awards totalled £29.5 million (20 per cent more than 2019/2020), with an average award of £613;
• 271,295 applications were made for crisis grants (22 per cent more than 2019/2020) which resulted in 188,120 awards (34 per more than the 2019/2020) - an acceptance rate of 69 per cent which is six per cent higher than the previous year; and
• expenditure on crisis grant awards totalled £20 million (54 per cent more than in 2019/2020), with an average award of £106.

NB - figures are also provided on Self-Isolation Support Grant applications, awards and expenditure from October 2021 (when the scheme began) to May 2021 which show (in table 74 of the data tables accompanying the statistics release) that just 11,331 awards were made (out of 26,778 applications received in the period) with a value of £5.67 million.

For more information, see Scottish Welfare Fund statistics: annual update 2020-2021 from gov.scot