Expanding access to advice services for people with disabilities in Scotland

AdviceUK has been appointed by the Scottish Government to distribute and manage the Advice in Accessible Settings fund. The fund, which began delivery in 2023 is being continued and increased in 2025-26 with of £1 525,000.00 available in small grants this year to be distributed to members who provide a holistic money and debt, welfare benefits, housing and energy advice services within Scotland. This represents an increase of £225,000 on last years’ funding.

Following successful delivery of the fund in 2023 and 2024 by AdviceUK to its members, the Scottish Government has agreed to further expand the fund this year to continue to provide advice in health, education and community settings, with an additional focus on increasing accessibility for disabled people to access advice.

From data set already held up to and including the 31st March 2025 the programme has delivered the following;

• Financial Gains recorded by the projects – £22,321,235.62
• Debt managed by the projects – £6,673,247.11
• Total number of clients assisted in the programme – 10,002

Going into year 3 we now have 106 Organisations involved in this funding programme, currently covering 29 out of the 32 local authority areas, although this is likely to increase with the addition of new projects.

The funding is a mixture of the Debt Levy and Scottish Government resource funding for welfare and debt advice to target the Cost-of-Living crisis and to increase the availability of advice in accessible settings. The increased amount in 2025-26 served to increase accessibility to advice for people with disabilities. Following Ministerial approval, the work is now underway with continuation for existing projects funded in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, and the addition of some new projects/partners who have increased the expansion of current disability focused projects.

The criteria for the project delivery continues to be as detailed;

• Deliver holistic (income maximisation, debt and welfare) advice in either an education, health or other community/accessible setting(s);
• Demonstrate a viable partnership and collaborative working;
• Demonstrate improved outcomes for people accessing the service, including positive financial and other benefits of advice to other services and partners (such as education and health services);
• Evidence of a plan for sustainability of the partnership beyond the funding period for this Programme; this includes a demonstration of how system and delivery changes will be affected by the approach, in order to embed advice provision into existing services;
• At least one partner has AdviceUK membership and access to AdviceUK support, including having the AdvicePro case recording system to ensure consistency of reporting;
• Delivery of the services must take place within Scotland;
• All projects must include some aspect of face to face/ in-person delivery;
• Each project or partnership must include at least one member of staff or one organisation that is accredited by the Financial Conduct Authority and is able to deliver regulated debt advice;
• All projects will agreed to a reporting and monitoring cycle as agreed between the Scottish Government and AdviceUK including reports on progress against objectives, the number of clients seen and a demonstration of measurable outcomes;
• Focused on those “hardest to reach” or hardest to help, including those who might never have sought debt advice before;
• Completed by 31 March 2026;
• For new Projects there must be a focus on increasing accessibility to advice for disabled people in Scotland;
• Share learning to inform future approaches.

AdviceUK would like to thank the Scottish Government for their commitment to the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund and in particular the projects delivering this wonderful programme across Scotland.

Find out more about the impact the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund has had to date, in our case studies below:

The Reid Family*	Naomi*

* Case study names altered to protect identities

Image credit: Photo by CDC on Unsplash