Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has called for a halt to the roll out of a new benefit for disabled people, as new powers for the Scottish Government could mean it is changed by the time it has been fully introduced.

The charity said it would be wasteful and distressing to press ahead with the introduction of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) in Scotland, when the benefit will be devolved to Holyrood in 2017 under the Smith Commission Proposals.

PIP, which is replacing Disability Living Allowance, cannot be fully delivered in Scotland until October 2017, which means even more disruption for disabled claimants down the line, CAS said.

In a letter to the Scottish Secretary and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, CAS said switching Scottish claimants to the PIP system now - only to switch them again to another new system in two years time - would be a waste of public resources.

CAS Chief Executive Margaret Lynch said: "PIP will take to October 2017 to be fully rolled out to all DLA claimants - and that is if there are no further delays. As we know that the Scottish Government will be developing and introducing its own PIP equivalent, we don't want to see disabled claimants having to go through changes in their payments, how they are paid, and how much they are paid, twice in a short period of time.

"I think this will be of major detriment to claimants and is unnecessary and possibly very distressing. In addition it seems a waste of resources to pay for the assessments of tens of thousands of disabled people to transfer them onto a system that they will not be staying on.

"I'm calling on the UK government to halt the migration of all existing DLA claimants to PIP and I hope this will be backed by the Scotland Office and the Scottish Government."

Last week 57 civic organisations wrote to work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith - demanding the introduction of another new benefit, Universal Credit, be halted, also on the basis of the Smith proposals.

A DWP spokesman said: "Under the PIP, claimants receive a face-to-face assessment and regular reviews to ensure support is directed according to need. Latest figures show just that, with over 22% of people are getting the highest level of support under PIP, compared to 16% under the outgoing DLA system.

"To halt this progress now would be to disadvantage disabled people across Scotland."