Scottish Welfare Fund more than doubled as part of Scottish Government’s £350 million emergency funding package in response to coronavirus outbreak

Other funding commitments include an additional £50 million to meet the anticipated increase in applications for council tax reduction and Scottish social security benefits

The Scottish Government has more than doubled the Scottish Welfare Fund with £45 million additional funding as part of a £350 million emergency funding package in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Announcing the new emergency funding package, Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said –

'Our funding package will be focused on delivery, not bureaucracy or red tape. Local authorities, local businesses, community groups and the third sector know and understand the support needs of their communities the best. Where people and organisations have solutions or ideas, I want to hear them.

Unless we work with local partners the impact of our investment will not be felt by those that need it most. So my message today is - if we can help you to help the people of Scotland then we will.’

In addition, the Scottish Government outlines that the package includes £50 million allocated to meet an anticipated increase in applications for the council tax reduction and Scottish social security benefits- while the remaining monies will be allocated to –

• a £70 million Food Fund to help organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors address issues of food insecurity, especially for older people, and families who may not be able to rely on free school meals;
• a £50 million Wellbeing Fund to help charities and others who require additional capacity to work with at-risk people who may be worst affected by the crisis, including homeless people and those experiencing fuel poverty;
• a £40 million Supporting Communities Fund to support community efforts at a local level, including to support people at risk because of age, isolation, carers, homeless people and asylum seekers and signposting people to sources of help such as applying for benefits;
• a £20 million allocation to the Third Sector Resilience Fund, to help ensure the health and continued viability of the third sector organisations affected by cash flow and other problems;
• reserve funding (£25 million) to allow ‘swift and flexible responses to rapidly changing circumstances'; and
• local authorities to support their own local resilience, support and hardship plans (£50 million in 'Barnett consequentials' from the UK Government’s hardship fund).

For more information see Helping communities affected by COVID-19 from gov.scot