How Grants will be paid

Crisis Grants

Awards will be made by text message sent to the applicant's mobile phone.  This will either appear as a bar code or a message.  The phone should be presented at a 'Pay Point' outlet to collect the grant.

In the circumstances where an applicant does not have a phone, an appointment will be made to collect a Pay Point voucher from Inverclyde Council's Customer Service Centre, Clyde Square, Greenock.  The voucher will only be provided after security questions have been answered correctly.

Community Care Grants

Payment will normally be made by BACS directly to the applicant’s bank account. If this is not suitable where an applicant has an overdraft and will not be able to access the grant an ‘All Pay’ Mastercard debit card will be issued. All Pay debit cards can be used at any outlet that accepts Visa although cannot be used to obtain cash. An appointment will be made to collect the All Pay debit card from Inverclyde Council’s Customer Service Centre, Clyde Square, Greenock. The card will only be provided after security questions have been answered correctly.

After an All Pay card has been collected:

  • Sign the card immediately
  • Call the phone number at the top of the letter
  • There are then 2 stages to the phone call
  • Key an eight digit number - made up by the applicant, perhaps an important date?
  • Listen to the phone message then select the first option
  • A 4 digit number will be given to use the card in shops
  • The card will be activated

Supervised Payments

In certain circumstances, awards from the Scottish Welfare Fund, particularly Community Care Payments may be made on the basis that spending should be supervised by an appropriate agency. This may be appropriate where the applicant needs help with decision making or where there is evidence that previous awards have not been spent on the items intended. Inverclyde Council will determine ‘appropriate agencies’.

Applications to the Scottish Welfare Fund in these circumstances will be made by phone by the service users’ support worker. Evidence may be requested from the support worker to support applications.

By accepting payments support providers agree to purchase goods or services as determined by Inverclyde Council’s Discretionary Payment Team.