Festive opening hours

We will close for the public holidays on Tuesday 24 December 2024 at 2.30pm, and remain closed for the public holidays between Christmas and New Year. 

However, we will open on 27, 30, and 31 December 2024 between 10am – 12pm and 2pm – 4pm. During these times, we will prioritise reviews of crisis grant 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 3 January 2025, and we will assist you over the phone.

Our normal service will resume on 3 January 2025 at 10am.

2018-19 Statistics

In 2018-19, 1,567 people contacted our Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) team.  This is a 34% increase on 2017-18, largely accounted for by signposting enquiries which rose from 424 in 2017-18 to 762 in 2018-19.

We handled 287 community care grant reviews and 513 crisis grant reviews, a total of 800.

The overall average uphold rate for crisis grant applications was 32%.

The overall average uphold rate for community care grant reviews was 51%.

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

The Ombudsman sends some authorities an annual letter about their review numbers.

Ombudsman's Local Authority letter October 2019 (PDF 248KB)

Statistics by council 2018-19

Updated: January 26, 2024