Scottish Welfare Fund Expenditure
type: Dataset
conforms to: http://mlcommons.org/croissant/1.0
contact point: ContactPoint
date modified: 2026-08-13T08:23:57.704353
date published: 2026-08-13T08:22:45.957486
description: The total expenditure for the Scottish Welfare Fund, from April 2013 broken down by Local Authority & Financial Year. The Scottish Welfare Fund is a national grant scheme run by Local Authorities, based on guidance from Scottish Ministers. The objectives of the scheme are to: * Provide a safety net in a disaster or emergency, when there is an immediate threat to health or safety * Enable people to live independently or continue to live independently, preventing the need for institutional care. The Scottish Welfare Fund is a discretionary, budget-limited grant scheme that prioritises applications according to need, it provides grants that do not have to be repaid. There are 2 types of grants in the Scottish Welfare Fund - Crisis Grants and Community Care Grants. A Crisis Grants aims to help people, on a low income, who are in crisis because of a disaster or an emergency. A disaster is something like a fire or a flood. An emergency might be when money has been stolen. A Community Care Grant aims to: * Help people establish themselves in the community following a period of care, where circumstances indicate that there is a risk of the person not being able to live independently * Help people remain in the community rather than going in to care where circumstances indicate that there is a risk of the person not being able to live independently. * Help people set up home in the community, as part of a planned resettlement programme, following an unsettled way of life. More information on Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics can be found on the [Scottish Government website](https://www.gov.scot/collections/sg-social-security-scotland-stats-publications/#scottishwelfarefundstatistics). These statistics are being published as experimental statistics. Experimental statistics are defined in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics as \"new official statistics undergoing evaluation. They are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a mea…
accuracy: Users should be aware that for January to March 2020 there are specific data quality issues with data from City of Edinburgh, Glasgow City and North Lanarkshire, which also affect Scotland level official statistics. These are described in the data quality section of the relevant [publication.](https://www.gov.scot/collections/sg-social-security-scotland-stats-publications/#scottishwelfarefundstatistics) There may also be additional data quality issues due to the impacts of COVID-19, for example, details of applications/awards may not have been received due to processing delays and/or cases being 'pending' or 'awarded in principle' on local authority systems. We are working with specific local authorities to identify and resolve these errors.
comment: Expenditure for awards paid out for the Scottish Welfare Fund
completeness: Quarterly data updates and commentary are published on the [Scottish Government website]( https://www.gov.scot/collections/sg-social-security-scotland-stats-publications/#scottishwelfarefundstatistics).
confidentiality: For the number of SWF applications, the counts have been rounded to the nearest 5 observations for Disclosure Control.
consistency: Annual reports by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the Social Fund for the period prior to 1 April 2013 are available from the Department for Work and Pensions. The most recently available report can be found on the [DWP website.](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-report-by-the-secretary-of-state-for-work-and-pensions-on-the-social-fund-2012-to-2013) On 1 April 2013, the Department for Work and Pensions devolved the responsibility for Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans to the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and directly to English Local Authorities. As a single national scheme covering the UK is no longer in operation, comparable statistics for other parts of the UK are not available.
geographical coverage: S12
geographical coverage: S92
license id: uk-ogl
next update: 2024-07-01
quality management: To ensure the data we receive is of the highest quality, we have asked all IT providers to implement the data specification as fully as possible. The data specification includes a number of validations. These validations are provided through an XSD schema and have also been implemented into the ProcXed system. Once Local Authorities submit data to the ProcXed system, a number of validations are triggered and warning messages appear. Local Authorities may re-submit data to fix these errors or they can comment them to explain why they believe the data to be valid. On submission of the data to the Scottish Government, each Local Authority is sent a detailed automatic report showing the contents of the data and any remaining errors. To ensure sufficient data has been submitted, we cross check all submitted data with the informal monitoring returns submitted to the Scottish Government. The automatic reports sent to Local Authorities contain charts which allow them to easily see if there is a discrepancy between these two data sources. For known data issues please see the full publication on the [Scottish Government website.]( https://www.gov.scot/collections/sg-social-security-scotland-stats-publications/#scottishwelfarefundstatistics)
reference period: PeriodOfTime
  end date: 2023
  start date: 2013
timeliness: Data are collected, validated and published in as timely manner as possible in accordance with the Statistics Code of Practice. Data are published quarterly (April, July, October, January) and can be found on the [Scottish Government website](https://www.gov.scot/collections/sg-social-security-scotland-stats-publications/#scottishwelfarefundstatistics). Annual data (Published in July) will be available on statistics.gov.scot
uniqueness: Not assessed
update frequency: annual
validity: Not assessed
will be updated: true
included in data catalog: CKAN
keywords: Economic Activity, Benefits and Tax Credits
license: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
record set: records

Scottish Government
type: Organization
contact point: ContactPoint
  contact type: customer service

Scottish Welfare Fund Application Type
type: Field
data type: Text
source:
  extract:
    column: Scottish Welfare Fund Application Type

scottish-welfare-fund-expenditure.csv
type: FileObject
description: Data file for Scottish Welfare Fund Expenditure
comment: Expenditure for awards paid out for the Scottish Welfare Fund
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dictionary: Column
  column: Value
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dictionary: Column
  column: Units
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dictionary: Column
  column: Scottish Welfare Fund Application Type
  type: text
dictionary: Column
  column: Measurement
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encoding format: CSV

GeographyType
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data type: Text
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    column: GeographyType

Value
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data type: Integer
source:
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Units
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data type: Text
source:
  extract:
    column: Units

DateCode
type: Field
data type: Text
source:
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GeographyCode
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data type: Text
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GeographyName
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Measurement
type: Field
data type: Text
source:
  extract:
    column: Measurement