Crisis grant Scotland: how to apply and what you get

A crisis grant is emergency money from the Scottish Welfare Fund that you do not pay back. In Scotland you apply to the council where you live, online or by phone, and the council should decide by the end of the next working day.

In 2025/26 Scottish councils received 258,490 crisis grant applications and made 167,990 awards, 65% of the decisions. The average award was £130. It is help with an emergency rather than a fixed sum, so what you get depends on what you need right now.

What a crisis grant is

The Scottish Welfare Fund has two grants. A crisis grant is for an immediate emergency, such as losing your money, a fire or flood, or having nothing left for food or heating. A community care grant helps someone set up home or stay living independently. Neither is a loan.

Who can apply for a crisis grant

You must be at least 16 and on a low income or receiving certain benefits. You do not need to be unemployed. The council looks at the emergency, the money and help available to you, and whether a grant is an appropriate way to prevent serious harm.

Apply to the council where you live. The Scottish Government sets the national scheme, but it does not take individual applications. Under the national guidance you can normally get no more than three crisis grants in 12 months, unless the council accepts that your circumstances are exceptional.

What a crisis grant can cover

• •Food when an emergency has left you with nothing to eat.
• •Heating or electricity during an immediate crisis.
• •Essential travel or other urgent living costs.
• •Needs arising after a fire, flood, theft or sudden loss of income.

It is not a general top up for every low income and it will not usually clear old debt. Say what happened, what is needed now and what harm will occur if help does not arrive.

Councils pay in the way that fits the emergency, often a bank transfer, a voucher or a top up straight onto a prepayment meter. If you have no bank account, say so when you apply.

How much is a crisis grant?

There is no set amount. The council pays for the items or costs that get you through the emergency. The national figures give a sense of the scale.

The average award ranges from £90 in North Ayrshire to £285 in Shetland Islands. Island councils make far fewer awards than the cities, so their averages are less typical.

Apply for crisis grant help online or by phone

You apply to your own council, not to the Scottish Government or the DWP. Most councils have an online form and most also take applications by phone. If you are not sure which council covers your address, find your council area first.

Have these details ready

• •Your name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number if you have one.
• •Who lives with you and any children or health needs.
• •Current income, benefits, bank balance and essential outgoings.
• •A short account of the emergency and what you need today.

If forms are difficult, ask the council, a library, Citizens Advice or a local welfare rights service to help. Do not wait to make the wording perfect while the emergency gets worse.

Crisis grant application: what happens next

Once the council has everything it needs, it should decide a crisis grant by the end of the next working day. A working day runs to 4.45pm, so an application that arrives later, or at a weekend, counts from the next working day. Nationally, 98% of decisions met the deadline in January to March 2026.

If the council asks for more information, reply quickly, because the decision clock starts once it has what it needs. To check on an application, phone the council's Scottish Welfare Fund team with your name, address and the date you applied. Each council handles its own applications, so it is the only place that can tell you where yours has got to.

Crisis loan Scotland: what replaced it

Crisis loans from the DWP Social Fund ended in Scotland on 1 April 2013. The Scottish Welfare Fund replaced them, along with community care grants, and it gives grants rather than loans. If you are searching for a crisis loan in Scotland, the crisis grant is what you are looking for.

The only loan left for an emergency is a Universal Credit advance from the DWP, which is taken back from later payments. A crisis grant is not.

Crisis grant or community care grant

A community care grant is the other half of the Scottish Welfare Fund. It helps people stay in their community rather than go into care, set up home after care, hospital, prison or homelessness, or keep a family together under exceptional pressure. It often pays for essentials such as beds, furniture and kitchen items.

Councils usually use one form for both grants. A community care grant takes longer: the council has up to 15 working days from having all the information it needs.

If the council says no

Ask for the reason, then ask for a review. You normally have 20 working days from the decision to ask, and councils aim to decide a crisis grant review within 2 working days. Correct anything that was misunderstood and give missing evidence. Explain the immediate risk in plain terms: no food, no heat, unsafe travel, or a child or disabled person affected.

If the review still says no, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman can look at it independently, free on 0800 014 7299. Ask soon after the review decision, because there is a time limit.

A grant cannot solve an ongoing rent gap. For that, check Discretionary Housing Payments. If council tax is part of the problem, check Council Tax Reduction and what your council tax band costs, and see the benefits guides for regular help you may be missing.