AN extra £20 million of Scottish Government cash aimed at helping those struggling as a result of welfare cuts could provide a lifeline for thousands of families, housing campaigners have said.

Councils across Scotland have been allocated their share of the additional funding which the Scottish Government is using to boost the discretionary housing payment budget.

The extra cash means around £35 million will be available to councils, with housing benefit recipients in financial difficulty able to apply for help to meet their accommodation costs.

l Meanwhile, a disabled woman unable to share a bedroom with her husband has won an appeal against the bedroom tax. In what is thought to be the first successful case of its kind in England, a tribunal found that the local authority had "not taken into consideration her disabilities and her reasonable requirements".