The supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme is administered on my behalf by the health boards. Under the SWA scheme, health boards can provide a basic weekly payment to eligible people who have little or no income. An assessment of a person's means and needs is carried out and where there is a shortfall in a person's income a payment may be made to bring that person's income up to the appropriate supplementary welfare allowance rate.
Payments are made where a person has no means to meet his or her immediate needs pending payment from another source, for example, where he or she are awaiting determination of an application for a social welfare or a health board payment. Some 12,223 people were in receipt of these interim payments on 31 December 1999.