FOR many of us, Christmas is a time for over-indulgence or, at the very least, enjoying a few good dinners in the company of our family and friends.

So it is distressing to learn that a growing number of Scots are ­struggling to feed themselves and their families, and that the best they can hope for over the festive period is to put together a meal prepared with ingredients from one of the ­growing number of food banks that have been set up across Scotland.

As we report today, record numbers of families are turning to these services. This year, food-bank operator The Trussell Trust has witnessed a fivefold increase in demand compared with 2012, and FareShare expects to have to provide double the number of meals as last Christmas. This is, of course, the season of goodwill and it is heartening to know those charities exist and volunteers are giving up their free time to help people who are in desperate need of a little festive cheer.

But this is 2013. A full 17 decades have passed since Charles Dickens highlighted the scandal of poverty and destitution in Victorian Britain in his novel, A Christmas Carol.

Yet as food banks were debated in the House of Commons last week, it was hard not to hear traces of Ebenezer Scrooge's "are there no workhouses?" speech when Work and Pensions Minister Esther McVey remarked: "In the UK it is right that more people are ... going to food banks because as times are tough, we are all having to pay back this £1.5 trillion debt personally which spiralled under Labour."

The Coalition Government claims there is "no robust evidence that welfare reforms are linked to increased use of food banks", but this sounds like wilful ignorance when food-bank operators report a direct correlation between demand for their services and the introduction of benefit sanctions such as the bedroom tax.

With real wages shrinking and the cost of living having risen by 25% over the past five years, working people are feeling the squeeze.

Positive Action in Housing (PAH), which says its winter destitution surgery was "deluged" by people desperate for help, tells of one client who had expressed deep shame at having to ask for some bread and soup to see him though until his benefits were paid.

We are inclined to agree with PAH that the shame lies, not with the individuals who are forced to seek help, but with a Westminster Government that seems determined to press ahead with a programme of cuts and sanctions that are ­hurting the country's neediest, most vulnerable people.

The British economy is, we are told, in recovery, and bonuses are back for bankers. For pity's sake: at Christmas time, will the Coalition Government open its eyes to the harsh truth that is being played out in food banks across the land, and stop punishing the poor?