Under consideration PE2280: Transition the Scottish Welfare Fund to Annually Managed Expenditure Financing
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to transition the SWF to a demand-led, AME framework. Using devolved powers under the Scotland Act 2016, SWF Crisis and Community Care Grants must become an unconditional statutory entitlement. This ensures no council can reject valid claims due to budget exhaustion or arbitrary priority criteria, and abolishes the three-application annual limit on Crisis Grants. We must end postcode lotteries where support depends on postcode. Dignity and survival are human rights, not discretionary gifts.
Background information
SWF is broken. Councils systematically sabotage emergency aid via arbitrary restrictions. Authorities ration help through punitive "priority tiers", ensuring constant rejections. When approved, councils award insultingly low, derisory amounts, stripping people of dignity.
Under the Scotland Act 2016, social security is fully devolved. Holyrood has absolute power to reclassify SWF into a centralized, demand-led Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) framework. We demand the Government apply this non-capped model, legally prohibit councils from using budget-driven criteria and repeal the three-grant annual limit.
Crucially, the law must mandate that final financial awards are determined strictly by the applicant's self-assessed crisis costs, ending the power of councils to slash grants or issue insufficient sums. Holyrood must permanently establish a demand-led welfare delivery that protects every single citizen across Scotland with absolute dignity throughout our sovereign nation today.
1 signature
This petition is now under consideration
Click here for further information about the consideration of this petition.