£10m emergency support for families

More support will be available to families and households to help cover the cost of life’s essentials and to deal with emergencies.

First Minister John Swinney has confirmed that £10 million originally earmarked in 2025-26 to support the two-child limit mitigation payment in Scotland will be reallocated to tackling child poverty.

The majority of the funding will be split between charities and government programmes that provide emergency financial support, including:

• £5.5 million additional funding for the Scottish Welfare Fund. The fund is administered by local authorities and provides people on low incomes with emergency grants if they are facing crisis, homelessness or other housing or caring challenges
• An additional £0.55 million for Aberlour Children’s Charity and £1.5 million for Children First to provide extra emergency support to families in crisis
• £1.5 million for the Corra Foundation to distribute additional emergency funds via local organisations

A further £1 million will support various strands of the Scottish Government’s national Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-2026, including parental employability schemes, funding to support women back into the workforce, additional investment into the King’s Trust’s NHS employability programmes, and targeted support for households experiencing homelessness.

Visiting children’s charity Children First, First Minister John Swinney said:

“When I became First Minister, I said that I will pursue priorities that will make Scotland the best our country can be, and the most important priority that I have pursued in government has been that of eradicating child poverty.

“We have made progress. Scotland is the only part of the UK where relative child poverty rates fell in the last year. Our investment in a more dignified and generous social security system, funded childcare, free school meals and free bus travel for under-22s is putting more money in families’ pockets.

“However, as we start 2026, there are still far too many children in Scotland growing up hungry, or cold, and unable to reach their full potential. That is unacceptable.

“Today’s announcement will provide some immediate short-term relief for individuals and families facing the most challenging of circumstances. Our local authorities and charities have well-established means of getting support out quickly to people in need.

“Next week we will set out in more detail our intention to put tackling child poverty at the heart of the next Scottish Budget and I look forward to unveiling landmark interventions to drive this work forward.”

Chief Executive of Children First, Scotland’s national children’s charity, Mary Glasgow said:

“These funds from the Scottish Government will allow Children First to offer life changing and immediate support to thousands of children as part of the national mission to eradicate child poverty. Through our national support line we will be able to reach more children and families to offer the financial, practical and emotional support they need to improve their circumstances and tackle the hardships they face in the short and longer term.

“Any family in Scotland in need of help can contact Children First’s friendly, specialist support line team  365 days a year by calling 08000 28 22 33 or starting a web chat at www.childrenfirst.org.uk/supportline.”

Chief Executive of Aberlour Justina Murray said:

“Aberlour is delighted to receive this funding boost from the Scottish Government for our Urgent Assistance Fund.

“We know that families living in poverty particularly struggle with the cost of living during the winter months, with the post-Christmas period particularly challenging and often very bleak.

“This additional funding will be used to provide emergency cash grants via our UAF to families in desperate need for essentials like heating, food, warm clothing and bedding.

“This generous contribution by the Scottish Government will ensure that around 1,660 families living in poverty will have the basic essentials they need this winter such as food on the table, adequate clothing for their children and a warm home at night.”

Background

The Scottish Welfare Fund is made up of two different grants (Crisis Grant and Community Care Grant) which can be applied for through your local authority and do not need to be paid back. To apply for a grant from the Scottish Welfare Fund you must be 16 or older and on a low income or getting certain benefits.

Aberlour Children’s Charity will receive £550,000 in 2025/26 towards their Urgent Assistance Fund, which provides emergency cash grants to help families who are struggling to provide essentials such as food, heating, beds and clothing for their children. Since April 2021, the fund has supported 28,455 people.

Children First will receive £1.5 million in 2025/26 to provide funds to families in crisis and to support Children First’s helpline for people with money and financial wellbeing issues.

The Corra Foundation will receive £1.5 million to provide emergency support to households via a new 2025-2026 iteration of their Household Hardship Fund (HHF).  This will pass on funding to locally led organisations with established connections with households on low incomes facing hardship and poverty. The previous 2023 HHF, supported by the Scottish Government and other funders, was estimated to reach over 17,000 people.

The Scottish Government’s tackling child poverty delivery plan for 2022-26, ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’, sets out the action being taken across a range of policy areas to reduce child poverty, provide immediate support families and scale up employment support for parents. Projects supported by just under an additional £1 million investment include Local Employability Partnerships, Ending Homelessness Together, Women Returners support and the King’s Trust’s NHS employability programmes.