Glasgow has more benefits claimants labelled ‘too drunk to work’ than any other part of the UK, figures have revealed.
The city has twice as many alcoholics claiming disability allowance as any other UK city, with 2,390 individuals currently signed off due to being unfit for work, according to a report in The Scottish Sun.
The Department of Work and Pensions say around 58,000 people in the UK are currently off work as a result of alcoholism in total but Glasgow has nearly twice as many as other major cities such as Birmingham and Liverpool.
Scottish Labour’s equality spokeswoman Jenny Marra called the figures “appalling”.
She said: “They show the problems that affect too many people because of poverty and unemployment.
“The only way to tackle these social issues is to build a better economy, get people into work and active. Scotland’s future can only be built on investment in education and employment.”
Maureen Watt, the SNP’s Minister for Public Health, said the figures showed the size of the task facing the government in improving the nation’s health.
She said: “We are working to make Scotland healthier but we won’t solve this overnight, as these figures show.”
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