An average of 22 people in need per day sought an emergency crisis grant in Dumfries and Galloway last year as poverty levels soared.
Desperate parents and individuals turned to Dumfries and Galloway Council for a cash payment on 8,030 occasions in 2022/23 as they struggled to make ends meet.
This was the highest number of applications in the past eight years – excluding the height of the pandemic in 2020/21 when there were 84 more.
Of those cases, 5,536 grants were awarded, with an average of £94.81 dished out as support in each case.
The shock figures are presented in a new welfare and benefits report due to be tabled at the council’s communities committee next Tuesday.
Nith Councillor John Campbell, who sits on the committee, said this week: “The need for support is clearly rising – and I think the situation is only going to get worse due to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
“Although inflation is expected to come down, that doesn’t mean food costs and energy prices are going to drop significantly.
“People are struggling right now and they will be for some time yet. The number of people contacting their local councillors about poverty and the cost of living has increased.
“The Scottish Government has been doing what it can to mitigate all these financial pressures since austerity was introduced at Westminster back in 2010. It all falls back on Westminster.”
The welfare and benefits report contains a table of statistics detailing the number of crisis grants applications and number of those awarded going back to 2015/16.
Since 2015/16 the numbers have more than doubled. That year there were just 3,693 applications for crisis grants, with 2,504 approved.
Paula Doherty, the council’s welfare and benefits operations team leader, authored the report.
She wrote: “During 2022/23 Scottish Welfare Fund supported customers in Dumfries and Galloway to the value of £1,648,039. 8,030 applications for a crisis grant were received from 3,937 customers.
“This equates to an average of two applications per customer. 2,591 applications for a community care grant were received from 2,176 customers. This equates to an average of 1.2 applications per customer.”
Crisis grants are available to people aged 16 or over, on a low income, and unable to get financial help elsewhere.
“A crisis grant can be made when you’ve experienced some emergency or disaster and you have unexpected expenses that you can’t meet,” according to the Citizens’ Advice Bureau.
“The grant must be needed to prevent serious damage or risk to the health or safety of you or your family.”
Last year, there were 53 cases where customers have had more than three awards due to extreme hardship.
