The grants are grants. Nothing about them is repayable, and the Act does not allow the fund to make loans at all.

Here is what the fund is, what each grant covers, why neither can touch a debt, and what to do about the arrears instead. What a Crisis Grant is and how to apply is the step-by-step application guide.

It is a discretionary fund each council must run, with the purposes fixed by statute. Section 2(1) of the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Act 2015 says a council may use its welfare fund only for two things, and the word only is doing the work.

The two statutory purposes

The first is meeting, or helping to meet, an immediate short-term need arising out of an exceptional event or exceptional circumstances that has to be met to avoid a risk to someone’s wellbeing. The second is enabling qualifying individuals to establish or maintain a settled home, under the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Act 2015.

The detail sits in the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Regulations 2016, in force 1 April 2016, and in the statutory guidance issued in March 2026. The guidance is reissued annually, so check the edition date on anything you read about the fund.

Delivered locally, decided locally

All 32 councils deliver it and each has wide discretion within the same framework. What does not vary between them is who is eligible, the statutory timescales, and the list of things the fund cannot pay for.

Both grants are grants. Neither is repayable.

That is not just practice. Section 2(3) of the 2015 Act says the assistance a council may provide from its welfare fund does not include making loans.

A Crisis Grant meets an emergency or disaster that puts health or safety at immediate risk. A Community Care Grant helps someone set up or keep a settled home, or eases exceptional pressure on a family.

The two grants side by side

The eligibility rules that apply to both

You have to be aged 16 or over. Regulation 4 limits assistance to someone resident in the council’s area, about to become resident there, or homeless.

Regulation 5 is the income test, and receipt of a qualifying benefit is a passport through it rather than a requirement. The guidance says twice that it is not a requirement to be on an income-related benefit to be eligible.

Universal Credit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance and Pension Credit all passport it. Working households are assessed against low income thresholds the Scottish Government publishes each year.

Two limits people get the wrong way round

The three-in-twelve-months rule is a Crisis Grant rule only, and the count follows you across all 32 councils rather than resetting when you move. There is no limit on the number of Community Care Grants.

The savings limits of £700, or £1,200 over pension age, are Community Care Grant rules. They come from the guidance rather than the regulations, so they can change at a reissue.

Neither grant can be used to pay a debt. Regulation 11 of the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Regulations 2016 says that where an application seeks assistance for an item listed as excluded in the statutory guidance, no assistance is to be provided, and the guidance lists arrears of local authority tax among the excluded items.

Why this is a prohibition rather than a discretion

Regulation 11 of the 2016 Regulations says that where an application seeks assistance for an excluded item, no assistance is to be provided. The verb is is to be, not may be.

Three other regulations in the same instrument each carry an exceptional-circumstances proviso. Regulation 11 does not, so there is no route round it and it does not vary between councils.

Council tax arrears are named twice in the same excluded item

Item 8 of Annex A to the statutory guidance issued in March 2026 excludes debts, debt interest, debts to government departments or local authority tax, Scottish Water and waste charges, arrears of local authority tax, community water charges, and mortgage and rent arrears. The guidance is published by the Scottish Government.

Local authority tax is the guidance’s term for council tax throughout. There is no ambiguity to exploit in that item.

The one debt-shaped exception is a prepayment meter, where an emergency amount sufficient to reach the end of the crisis can be met.

That is an emergency top-up to keep the supply on to the end of the crisis. It is not authority to clear fuel arrears.

A second reason, which does not depend on the exclusions at all

The guidance requires the need to be current at the time of the application. It is not for an anticipated need, and not for an application after the event to repay money already spent.

So a reader who has already borrowed to cover a crisis cannot get a Crisis Grant to repay the borrowing. The two rules point the same way.

Owing the council money is not a reason to refuse you. The guidance tells local authorities not to refuse a Crisis Grant or a Community Care Grant because the applicant has outstanding debts to the authority.

What paragraph 6.6 of the guidance says

You can be in arrears, or under a wage arrestment, and still get a grant for food and fuel. What you cannot get is a grant to pay the arrears.

The same paragraph then says a grant should not be used to pay outstanding debt to the council, and cross-refers to the exclusions. One sentence is a shield and the next is the bar.

Using it if a council gets it wrong

If a council refuses a Crisis Grant because of your arrears, that paragraph is the ground for a review. Say in the review request that owing the council money is not a ground of refusal under the statutory guidance.

Being in arrears, facing a summary warrant, or having a deduction already coming out of your wages does not disqualify you. What happens if you do not pay your council tax in Scotland sets out the recovery steps that may be running alongside.

It keeps food on the table and the lights on while the arrears are dealt with by other means. That is a narrow role, and on a household that has just lost a slice of its wages it is not a small one.

What it can cover, and what it cannot

Where a grant genuinely helps

• A Crisis Grant can cover heating costs in an emergency, which is one of the sharpest pressures when a deduction has already been taken from your pay.
• Food and other essentials covered by a grant leave what little is left in the account for something else.
• A Community Care Grant can supply the basics for a home you are setting up, so you are not borrowing to furnish it.

What deals with the debt itself

Council Tax Reduction is the main route and can cover up to 100% of the council tax liability. What Council Tax Reduction in Scotland is explains it, and whether Council Tax Reduction can be backdated covers getting it applied to a past period.

For the arrears themselves, an affordable arrangement with the council, the Debt Arrangement Scheme, a time to pay order or a statutory moratorium are the tools that reach enforcement.

What does not exist in Scotland is a council hardship reduction of the kind English guidance describes, and whether you can get a council tax discretionary reduction explains why. Our council tax debt advice page sets out how we help.

A Crisis Grant decision is due by the end of the next working day. A Community Care Grant decision is due by the end of the fifteenth working day, on the same trigger.

When the clock starts

Regulation 13 runs both deadlines from the point the council has received all the information allowing a decision to be made. An incomplete application does not start it.

You may see it said that most councils decide a Crisis Grant within two working days. That is a description of practice, and the regulation sets one working day.

The review route, and the two tiers

A first-tier review has to be carried out by someone who was not involved in the original decision. It cannot leave you worse off, because a review may not reduce or withdraw assistance already awarded.

The second tier is the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, which is free, independent and not part of any council, on 0800 014 7299. Where the Ombudsman directs an award the council must pay it without delay, and what free debt advice is available in Scotland lists the services that can help you make the request.

Treat a grant as the emergency measure it is and put the lasting work alongside it. The reductions that come off a council tax bill are separate claims and each one has to be made.

The short checklist

• Council Tax Reduction, which can cover up to 100% of the council tax liability and can be backdated in defined circumstances.
• The 25% single person discount, where only one adult lives in the property.
• Disregards for full-time students, apprentices, care leavers under 26, live-in carers and people who are severely mentally impaired.
• The disabled band reduction, which charges the bill at one band lower where a disabled resident needs the extra space.

Working through them in order is the point of what benefits to check if you are struggling with council tax.

Applying, and where to start

There is no national application and no national helpline. You apply to your own council, and the Scottish Government’s Scottish Welfare Fund page carries a selector for all 32 of them.

The application itself, the evidence, the timescales and what to say are covered in what a Crisis Grant is and how to apply. For energy costs specifically, what help is available with energy bills in Scotland covers the longer-term schemes.

How much the fund actually pays out

In 2025-26 Scottish councils made 167,990 Crisis Grant awards and 41,840 Community Care Grant awards, worth £52.0 million between them. The average Crisis Grant award was £130 and the average Community Care Grant £720.

Those are Scottish Government statistics, published on 28 July 2026 for the year to 31 March 2026. They are a guide to scale rather than to what you will get.