WE are finally nearing consensus that the so-called bedroom tax is a flawed policy which can drive families apart, cause distress and worry, and which isn't working.

However, one important – but overlooked – side-effect of this, and other aspects of welfare reform, is the "shunting effect" when cuts to income, cuts to help with housing costs and much more add up to place additional pressure on already-stretched families and people who provide unpaid care. The costs of dealing with these pressures is being shunted on to statutory services and third sector organisations which are helping families who don't know where else to turn.

The sad, but significant, increase in the number of food banks is testament to this. As is the fact that almost 90% third of voluntary organisations of all types and in all parts of Scotland expect demand for their services to rise even further over the next few months. Community-based groups on the front line helping individuals are particularly at risk of struggling to match demand with resources. They cannot be expected to keep on picking up the pieces without additional investment.

As Andrew McKie wrote earlier this week, I'm sure that Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is trying to do his job with the best of intentions, but these intentions are overshadowed by a lack of real understanding on his part (despite his trip to Easterhouse) and on the part of his Cabinet colleagues of the cumulative impact of the benefit changes combined with cuts to local services.

We have a labour market which is increasingly characterised by low-paid employment and underemployment. This coupled with poorly thought-out "reforms" will lead to greater poverty and more dependency on the welfare system.

The Scottish Government's Expert Working Group on Welfare recently heard a little about what reality looks like for benefit claimants at an evidence session facilitated by the Poverty Alliance. It's a reality which makes uncomfortable reading for decision-makers across the Scotland and the UK. These are people who don't want to be where they are. They want to work. They want to care for a loved one. They want what we all want – to be able to do things together as a family, to find work and to be able to afford to live a good-quality life. They don't want to have to live from week to week.

More news titles are dedicating column inches to the devastating effect of benefits cuts for some of our most vulnerable people. While we do all we can to try to mitigate the worst of these effects, we also need to take the debate to the next level.

The collision of issues described above means we cannot afford more of the status quo with its systems and services which increasingly work against instead of with the people they are meant to serve and can condemn people to abject poverty, stigma and isolation rather than providing the helping hand they need to get back on their feet.

Let's not waste time speculating whether or not the Coalition Government's welfare reforms are deliberately malicious and making excuses about being under pressure to claw back deficits. Instead let's focus all our efforts on supporting the people who have already been hit by these disastrous policies and doing everything we can to find a more civilised approach to our welfare system.

A strong welfare system isn't purely about having a safety net in place when things go wrong, it's also about supporting people who cannot take up paid employment but who contribute and participate in their communities in many other ways – through volunteering, supporting each other, unpaid care and community activism. All this is under threat.

We need to establish the kind of society we want to live in, the outcomes we want for ourselves and for our loved ones. Should our society recognise that we are co-dependent and that we each have something to offer? That's a debate worth having.

Lynn Williams is Policy Officer for the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.