CHILDREN cared for by friends or relatives in the country's most deprived communities receive nearly six times less in Scottish Government cash than those in some of the most affluent.

New figures show ministers award children in kinship care arrangements in Glasgow an annual allocation of just £573, compared to £3,031 for those living in East Lothian.

Almost 1,350 children fall into the category in Glasgow compared to just 29 in East Lothian.

The figures come as an ongoing threat of a legal challenge on human rights grounds sees councils required to pay kinship carers the same rates as foster carers.

It has also prompted calls for an overhaul of how the SNP Government distributes financial aid to help mitigate the impact on council budgets of bringing kinship payments into line with fostering.

The leadership of Glasgow City Council has described the system as "a social injustice perpetrated on some of Scotland’s most vulnerable children by the government in Edinburgh" and demanded each child receive the same amount.

Other official figures show that in the Borders, where 31 children are looked after by friends or relatives rather than parents, the allocation is £2,694, while in Angus the figure is £2,786.

Dundee, which is also home to pockets of some of Scotland's highest levels of social deprivation, receives the third lowest figure in the country, with £813-per-child, with East Ayrshire second with £804.

Other affluent local authority areas where payments far outstrip that received by carers in Glasgow include Aberdeenshire, where the annual amount is £1,877 and East Renfrewshire, where it stands at £1,830.

The Equalities and Human Rights Council (EHRC) has repeatedly warned that councils who do not have parity between kinship and foster care allowances would be in breach of articles eight and 14 of the European Convention.

Local government umbrella group Cosla recently agreed with the Government to accept a total £3.3million for the whole of Scotland to fund the provision, with local authorities having to find the other 50 per cent.

But payments are not based on actual numbers of kinship care children, of which Glasgow has one third of the national figure.

Instead the Government uses a formula based on numbers of children in benefits households and the general population distribution as a proxy for actual numbers of children in kinship care.

Frank McAveety, leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “We have the highest number of kinship carers in the country but we get the lowest allocation of money per child in Scotland, and we make up the difference.

“It’s another example of how the Scottish Government is making the UK Government cuts worse for Glasgow.”

Susan Aitken, leader of the city's opposition SNP group, said: "Glasgow has a larger responsibility, comparable to other local authorities, when it comes to the numbers of children who live with kinship carers and where the administration has a constructive case to put for Glasgow getting a bigger share of national funding, the SNP group will support them.

"But it should be noted that this settlement has been agreed between the Scottish Government and Cosla, which Glasgow Labour walked out of."

The Government said the scale of the deficit faced by Glasgow was because it had adopted a policy of "very low allowances for kinship carers in comparison to foster carers" and that the funding formula was agreed with Cosla.

It said: "The agreed approach means that councils paying higher amounts are not penalised for paying closer to parity while others paying lower amounts must find additional resources to make up the shortfall created by local policy decisions."