Scottish Child Payment

Scottish Child Payment helps towards the costs of supporting your family. It’s a weekly payment of £27.15 that you can get for every child you look after who’s under 16 years of age. You’ll get the payment every 4 weeks if your application is successful.

Further information and an application can be made at: mygov.scot website or call on 0800 182 2222.

Best Start Grant

Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods are payments that help towards the costs of being pregnant or looking after a child. Best Start Grant is made up of 3 one-off payments:

• Pregnancy and Baby Payment
• Early Learning Payment
• School Age Payment

Best Start Foods is a prepaid card that can be used in shops or online to buy healthy foods like milk or fruit. The payments you can get now will depend on:

• how far along in your pregnancy you are
• how old your child is

Further information and an application can be made at: mygov.scot website.

Clothing Grant

The award of clothing grants is to assist with the cost of school clothing for families who are on a qualifying benefit or on low income. The current award is presently £134 per primary school child and £150 per secondary school child. Further information and an application can be made at: School Clothing Grants – Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Our Education, Skills and Community Wellbeing Directorate are committed to supporting families through our Dumfries and Galloway Poverty and Inequalities Partnership Strategy 2021-2026. Full details of all of the Projects which we deliver to support families are available on the following link: Poverty and Inequalities Partnership – Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Schools should also make parents aware of the School Uniform Donation and Collection Points and further information can be found on the above link.

Our Dumfries and Galloway Poverty and Inequalities Partnership have also developed a new Cost-of-Living Website which offers a huge amount of information to help all families at this time. The following link will take you to this site: Cost-of-Living – Dumfries and Galloway.

DG Maintenance Allowance (EMA)

Students could get financial support to stay on at school dependant on their household income and meet certain criteria. This is called an Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). Students must apply/reapply each Academic Year.

EMA is a means tested termly weekly allowance of £30, payable to students aged 16 to 19 for a maximum of 3 years. Students must achieve 100% attendance per week of the agreed attendance within their EMA Learning Agreement completed at school level.

It is payable in arrears, during term time only, generally on a 2-weekly basis. No payments are made for school holidays.

Students can apply if they attend a school in Dumfries and Galloway or have a history of being Home Educated, attend a Young Persons Activity with Employability and Skills (Dumfries and Galloway Council) or travel daily to a Cross Border facility.

Further information and an application can be made at: Education Maintenance Allowance – Dumfries and Galloway Council.

John Wallace Trust Scheme 1981

The scheme awards bursaries to secondary school pupils living in the upper Nithsdale area who are about to enter, or are attending, Higher Education or intend to travel for Education purposes.

Financial assistance may be available for up to five years. The amounts paid can change each year depending on the number of applicants received. Successful new and continuing students are required to complete a certificate of attendance form each year to ensure payment.

Further information can be found, and an application can be made at: John Wallace Trust Scheme – Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Dumfriesshire Education Trust

The Dumfriesshire Educational Trust offers several scholarships, bursaries, and grants to help people living in the former county of Dumfriesshire who want to attend educational activities.

Edinburgh Dumfriesshire Scholarship

This awards financial assistance to secondary school pupils who have been mainly educated in Dumfriesshire and are looking to enter higher education. Members select one student to benefit from the Trust from applications received. Preference may be given to students entering the University of Edinburgh. The award currently stands at £500 per annum for up to four years. The Award is based on S5 examination results together with a report from the Head teacher at the school. Usually only one award is made from any applications received. Further information and an application can be made at: Dumfriesshire Education Trust – Dumfries and Galloway Council.