Only about half the cash made available for "lifeline" grants has been handed out so far, it has been revealed.
More than 20,000 people have received money from the £33 million Scottish Welfare Fund, with about £3.5 million handed out in the new scheme's first three months.
But this is only about half the cash that was available for the period for April through to June, the Scottish Government revealed.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said councils were now working to boost awareness of the fund, which she said could help those who have been left struggling by "drastic welfare cuts".
The Scottish Welfare Fund was set up when responsibility for the previous Social Fund transferred from Westminster to Holyrood.
The Scottish Government provided an extra £9m for the new fund, which provides community care grants to help people live independently, as well as crisis grants, taking its total to £33m.
The Deputy First Minister said: "Westminster has imposed drastic welfare cuts which will affect the elderly, the disabled and the unemployed. But Scotland will not turn its back on vulnerable people.
"We will take every step necessary to ensure that the poorest in society are protected."
People apply to their local council for the grants and Ms Sturgeon said local authorities were "continuing to work in partnership with local voluntary organisations to boost knowledge of the new scheme through websites, local newspapers and word of mouth".
She added: "We are doing all we can but we know people are struggling because of the pressures from changes to the welfare system."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article