Shelter Scotland responds to latest Scottish Welfare Fund statistics

Responding to the latest Scottish Welfare Fund statistics, Alison Watson, our Director, said:

“These figures show a significant spike in applications to the Scottish Welfare Fund and remind us that tens of thousands of households are still struggling financially in the wake of the pandemic.

“Crisis grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund provide an important safety net for many, offering help with urgent living costs such as heating or food. However, they can’t address the systemic issues which force people into desperate situations in the first place.

“Every day Shelter Scotland hears from people struggling with the cost of insecure or unaffordable housing.

“It’s an exhausting, damaging, way to live and it has to stop.

“Building more quality social housing goes beyond the numbers of homes, it’s about social justice and is vital in tackling the root causes of poverty, reducing inequality and lifting a huge weight from the thousands of people living at the sharp end of the housing emergency.”