THE knock-on costs of welfare changes in Scotland could be many times any savings made by the Treasury, MSPs have been told.
Cutting Housing Benefit by £50 million could cost the Scottish Government and local authorities £400m, the new Welfare Reform Committee heard.
Representatives of 18 charities and organisations described the impact on Scotland of the benefit changes as severe, staggering and a threat to disabled people's independence.
They said the elderly and children would suffer, with the overall impact being described by one expert as "winding the clock back" on the welfare state by a decade.
Bill Scott, of Inclusion Scotland, said the changes could cost more than £400m.
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