Question reference: S4W-19886
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 21 February 2014
-
Current status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the Scottish Welfare Fund has been paid out (a) in cash and (b) as goods and what the value was of the goods.
Answer
Between 1 April 2013 and 30 September 2013, the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) spent or committed £9.2 million. Of this £9.2 million, a total of £8.6 million had been paid out to households and this was 94% of the spent or committed value. There is a lag between the amount spent or committed and the amount paid out to households, for example, due to households waiting for goods to be delivered.
Of the £8.6 million, around £1.3 million was paid out in cash and around £4.4 million were paid out in goods. Overall, cash payments accounted for 15% of the overall SWF spend by value, and goods accounted for 51% of the overall SWF spend by value. The remaining £2.9 million (34%) was paid out via other methods.
Details of all payments can be found in table 25a of SWF statistics, available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf/AprilSept2013.