The Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 provided a framework for the newly formed social work profession to use cash assistance in its work with children and adults, for use in emergencies, for preventative and for promotional social work; cash assistance was seen as the resource of a comprehensive Social Work Department. Fifty years on, this small scale study explored the role of financial assistance today from statutory and third sector services through examining the original policy intention of s.12, whether the use of cash assistance had changed over time and whether it currently played a role in addressing poverty.
