Festive closure 

Our office will be closed for the festive period from 25 December 2025 and will reopen on Monday 5 January 2026. 

We will be open on 29, 30 and 31 December between 10am – 12pm and 2pm – 4pm. During these times, we will be focusing on handling reviews of crisis grants received due to the urgency of these applications. If you wish to request a review of a community care grant application you can do so online. Alternatively, you can call us on 5 January 2026 and we can take your application over the phone.

Our normal service resumes on 5 January 2026 at 10am. 

2019-20 Statistics

In 2019-20 we received:

  • 1,038 review applications – a 29% increase on the 805 in the previous year
    • 339 community care grants
    • 699 crisis grants

 
We handled:

  • 1,035 review applications – a 29% increase on the 800 in the previous year
    • 336 community care grants
    • 699 crisis grants


Other key figures

  • 1,859 – the number of people to contact our Scottish Welfare Fund team.  An increase of 19% from the previous year.
  • 821 – the number of people we signposted to other forms of assistance.  634 of those were signposted to their local council.
  • 841 – the number of review requests that progressed to a decision being made:
    • 53% - the uphold rate for community care grant applications.  Up from 51% in the previous year.
    • 27% - the uphold rate for crisis grant applications. Down from 32% in the previous year.  
  • 100% - the percentage of crisis grants determined within one working day.
  • 96% - the percentage of community care grants determined within 21 working days.

 

Detailed information about the enquiries and reviews we handled over the course of the year is provided below:

Updated: October 8, 2025