MINISTERS have been urged to increase the size Scottish Welfare Fund after a surge in crisis applications last year saw it spent in full for the first time.
Councils received 193,230 applications for crisis care grants in 2018/19, up 11 per cent.
These led to 125,155 awards, an increase of 5% in the year, with the average award £83.
In addition, councils received 70,425 applications for community care grants (up 7%), leading to 40,485 awards (up 2%), with the average award worth £614.
Crisis grants help people get through cash emergencies, paying for essentials such as food heating costs and household items.
Care grants go to those leaving prison, the homeless and victims of domestic abuse to help them start a settled home with the one-off costs of beds, washing machines and cookers.
The acceptance rate for both awards fell last year, down two percentage points to 58% for community care grants and down three points to 65% for crisis grants.
Total spending from the Scottish Welfare Fund was £24.8m on community grants (up 5%) and £10.4m on crisis grants (up 14%), a total of £35.2m.
However, because the government has frozen the Fund at £33m since 2013, this was only possible because of a £2.3m of underspends from previous years carried forward.
READ MORE: Warning of more problems with devolved benefits system
Scottish Labour said the flat cash-terms budget amounted to a real-terms cut of £3.5m once inflation was factored in, and this would rise to £7m by 2025 on current trends.
Party leader Richard Leonard said: “Despite increasing demand for its services, the Scottish Welfare Fund and local councils are being starved of cash by the SNP. “With families using food banks and struggling to get by, this fund has never been more needed.
“Without additional funding from the SNP government this fund is in jeopardy, and it will be the most vulnerable people in our communities who will continue to lose out.”
Citizens Advice Scotland called for a review to ensure the Fund had the appropriate budget after it 100 per cent of its budget was spent for the first time.
Spokesperson Mhoraig Green said: “It should frankly shock people across the country that there were almost 200,000 applications for a crisis grant in Scotland in the last year.
“The figures show more needs to be done to tackle the causes of income crisis, particularly reducing the five-week wait for Universal Credit payments and high deductions to repay debt that leave people without enough to live on.
“More should be done to increase awareness of the support available from the Fund, as well as reviewing whether the levels of funding are adequate to meet demand."
READ MORE: £1.5m of Scottish Welfare Fund unspent
The Fund, part of an annual package of £125m to mitigate UK Government welfare cuts, has paid out more than £200m to 336,000 households, a third with children, since its inception.
SNP Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “The fact that so many households in Scotland are in need of emergency financial help is appalling, and a sad indictment of the UK Government’s record on austerity and welfare changes.
“As their welfare cuts continue to cause harm and damage, we continue to do our best to mitigate against them and provide financial support to low income families and carers through new social security benefits.”
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