Cash-strapped Scots receive £7.7m in grants

Equity Release may involve a home reversion plan or a lifetime mortgage, which is secured against your property. To understand the features and risks, ask for your personalised illustration. Any money released, plus accrued interest would be repaid upon death, or moving into long-term care. This equity release service is provided by Age Partnership, who provide initial advice for free and without obligation. Only if you choose to proceed and your case completes would a fee of 1.95% of the amount released be payable (minimum £1,495). Based on the number of Equity Release plans arranged from Oct - Dec 2017 Struggling Scots needed emergency grants totalling more than £2 million to help them cover the costs of heating, eating and other basic living costs in the last three months of 2017.

Councils handed out crisis grants worth £2,235,562 to a total of 23,150 hard-up households – with 9 per cent more people receiving help compared with a year ago.

The grants are distributed as part of the Scottish Welfare Fund, with the number of recipients up from 14,835 in the final quarter of 2013, the first year the scheme was in operation.

A total of £7.7m was handed out through the fund in October to December 2017, with more than £5.5m going on Community Care Grants, which help families facing exceptional pressures with one-off costs such as a cooker.

Crisis grants for food worth more than £1.2m were paid out in the period from October to December last year.