RECENT and rapid welfare changes represent an "unprecedented transfer of risk" from the state to individuals with Scots feeling the pinch, according to a new study.

Research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation charity suggested the Scottish Government should intervene after finding that poorer Scots feel "more confused and less secure" following rapid cuts to their incomes.

It uncovered signs of close-knit communities lending support to some members but warned of an overall picture of "heightened risk and instability".

The report, carried out by researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University, specifically examines the impact of welfare reform and local government cuts on older people, lone-parents and people experiencing in-work poverty within Craigneuk, North Lanarkshire.

It is the latest of several JRF-funded research projects tracing the impact of austerity policies on people and places in poverty.

Drawing on in-depth interviews, the report's authors warn that cuts to discretionary services will ultimately lead to higher costs if they exacerbate social inequality and increase negative outcomes for individuals.

Professor Darinka Asenova, lead investigator on the study, said: "Cuts to public services and changes to welfare provision increase the social risks experienced by several key groups, leading to further inequality, hardship and polarisation.

"All levels of government need to begin analysing the cumulative impact of this risk transfer and if necessary introduce policies to lessen the adverse impacts on the most vulnerable."

The report found that reduced provision of educational support, youth services, leisure and social care, is likely to exacerbate social risks for the three case study groups - risks that they appear insufficiently equipped to handle.

It said that despite identifying a deterioration in some services further proposed changes to public service provision were "less of a concern for respondents than the adverse impact of welfare reform on their personal circumstances".

Tougher sanctions attached to jobseekers' allowance and the earlier re-categorisation from carer to employee when seeking work are the welfare changes lone parents are most affected by.

Although older people are relatively protected from cuts some have in turn had to provide more support to affected family members, such as through childcare, the report found.

And while emergency measures put in place by the Scottish Government nationally and locally were, according to the authors, "helpful", agencies reported frustration that they are not always able to engage the people entitled to such assistance.

The report concluded by recommending that the Scottish Government's Equality Statement be expanded to identify the full range of social risk implications of the austerity measures, thus establishing the foundation for a "comprehensive risk mitigation strategy".

Ilona Haslewood, policy and research manager for JRF, added: "This study offers valuable insight into the lived reality of austerity as experienced by vulnerable groups.

"It also highlights how changes to welfare and cuts to public services combine with wider factors to place individuals and communities at heightened risk, risk which they are only partially able to absorb."

In June last year, a JRF study found that one in seven working-age adults and children could still be living in poverty by the mid-2020.

The report which looked at the challenge Scotland would face even with a higher employment rate than now said that even with high levels of people in work, lower pay and less working hours could still see people in poverty.

However, the UK Government said it was working to end child poverty by 2020.

Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Alex Neil said: "We know that welfare and benefit changes along with falling incomes, are having a significant impact on the most vulnerable in Scotland.

"Efforts to tackle economic inequalities in Scotland are being made in the face of a welfare reform programme that is estimated to reduce benefit expenditure by around £6 billion in Scotland in the six years to 2015-16.

"Despite these pressures the Scottish Government is doing all it can to protect household resources by increasing the provision of free early learning and childcare and extending the entitlement to free school meals to all children in primary one to three.

"In addition we are committed to supporting the Scottish Living Wage and protecting the pay of the lowest earners we have direct responsibility for through our public sector pay policy."