A Govan man told an Oxfam researcher recently:
"You can smell desperation in the air. You don't know if anybody's married, because none of them has rings - it's all in the pawn."
That was for an Oxfam report looking at the impact of austerity across Europe. Earlier this week, Scotland's chief medical officer Harry Burns was highlighting the likely impact of austerity in Greece.
His point was that Scotland suffered a similar seismic shock with the closure of the Clyde shipyards, and its impact still reverberates today.
Sadly, Scotland is all too well aware of the damage poverty does to health. That does not make today's report from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health any less alarming.
The findings of the centre's ongoing GoWell research project indicate a significant rise in mental health problems related to financial stress.
It is hard for those who have never experienced it to appreciate the pressure that comes with working out how to pay rent, feed and clothe your children and cover bills when income is inadequate, week after week, year after year. The GoWell research shows such pressures appear to be growing.
Two in five single parent families, for example, are having difficulty paying for fuel, a figure which has doubled since 2006.
There is a clue to the impact this is having in the fact that between a fifth and a quarter of those whose money worries have increased have mental health issues. Many are reporting them to GPs for the first time.
The Scottish Association for Mental Health says its own research broadly mirrors the GoWell findings. People who have lost their jobs or taken a pay cut due to austerity are eight times more likely to have asked for help with a new mental health problem. The Scottish Government also acknowledges the link between debt and money worries and mental health.
There are limits to what Scottish ministers can do, of course. It would be naive to think that increasing money worries for some are not linked to Westminster welfare reforms such as the unjust and irrational "bedroom tax". Welfare cuts are surely also a factor in the fact that in households with a disabled person, 40% now struggle to afford fuel. More sanctions against those claiming benefits is leading to a culture of fear. Meanwhile workfare for job seekers cannot possibly help build self-respect and good mental health unless claimants feel there is the real prospect of a job and a future at the end of it.
GoWell researchers suggest children in socially deprived areas are seeing regeneration work stalled, so they may be adults before it is finished. That should be cause for concern. Instead we put up with a situation where more than 6000 children in Scotland have received food parcels in the last six months, far more than for the whole of last year.
Austerity measures now seriously risk blighting a generation of Scots. Measures to improve mental health services will help. But this is more confirmation that UK welfare policy is awry and whatever the outcome of next year's referendum, Scotland needs more control of its social security system.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article