The bulk of West Lothian’s Anti-Poverty Service customers are from households in Bathgate.
More than £4.5m in unclaimed benefit was secured for those struggling to make ends meet in the town, a report to the Local Area Committee heard.
It is one of the largest customer groups in the nine council wards, second only to Whitburn and Blackburn. The two wards make up nearly 30% of all APS customers.
In her report to committee Nahid Hanif, the Anti-Poverty Service Manager said that households in the Bathgate ward had seen total financial gains of £4,508,743 million by maximising income from social security benefits.
In the last year there have been energy efficiency savings of £90,588 through access to financial support and advice.
Council officers offered support to deal with £1,144,069 of problem debt, resulting in reduction in debt repayments of £422,624 .
In the ongoing cost of living crisis it issued 552 emergency food vouchers and 326 fuel vouchers for households at risk of disconnection.
As part of its wider work with partners across West Lothian officers issued 2,714 referrals for emergency food parcels were made to the West Lothian Foodbank from the Advice Shop.
The service made 2,044 referrals to the Fuel Bank Foundation from the Advice Shop for emergency fuel vouchers for households at risk of disconnection from supply due to affordability issues.
The service has made 5,995 awards for discretionary housing payments amounting to £3,615,047.
The majority of this spend is focused on those customers in social housing who are subject to “the Bedroom tax” with £3,207,292 in awards allocated during 2025/26.
In addition to this it paid out £151,889 in respect of those subject to the Benefit Cap and a further £255,856 for additional reasons including financial hardship and restricted awards of Housing Benefit.
The Bathgate ward makes up approximately 10%, or 515 households, of the live combined Housing Benefits / Council Tax Reduction Scheme case-load. County wide that case-load was 14,936 in July.
Across West Lothian, in the 2025/26 school year, 4,244 children received a free school meal because they live in low-income households From the beginning of the academic year in August 2025, school holiday meal payments totalling £1,168,781 were paid to qualifying pupils.
Ms Hanif’s report highlighted positive steps by the Anti-Poverty Service in the last year.
These included the key achievements of the Tackling Poverty Strategy 2025/26 action plan: – 73% of employability customers supported into work, education or training through employability services and 51 wage subsidy places created through the StepsN2Work programme.
A further 932 individuals accessed affordable credit options through local Credit Unions, reducing the need for residents to use high-cost credit options such as payday or doorstep lenders.
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
