THE SNP has claimed the UK Government's package of welfare cuts will cost Scots nearly twice as much as previously thought.
Deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon, in her speech to the party's spring conference in Inverness, unveiled a new Scottish Government analysis showing cuts from financial year 2010/11 to 2014/15 will amount to £4.5 billion.
UK Government officials have previously indicated around £2.5bn would be slashed from a range of benefits, including tax credits, unemployment benefits and support for disabled people.
Ms Sturgeon told delegates the money would be "taken from the purses and wallets of ordinary, hard-working people". She added: "It is a disgrace. It will be hard-working people that will feel the pain, and disabled people too. Not the so-called scroungers and skivers portrayed by smug Mr Osborne."
She claimed the loss to the Scottish economy, as people's spending power was reduced, would cost 17,000 jobs. Ms Sturgeon also warned £1bn of cuts would be to benefits supporting children, equivalent to £1000 for every under-16 in the country.
The Deputy First Minister added: "There you have it – the awful price of letting Westminster control our resources and take our decisions for us."
The figures were taken from an analysis published by the Scottish Government to coincide with her speech. It listed 30 cuts across a wide range of welfare spending.
Ms Sturgeon attacked the "shameful" reforms, part of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's drive to reduce spending by the DWP by £46.6bn by 2014/15, as she vowed to reverse one of the measures –the so-called bedroom tax – if Scotland becomes independent.
The pledge, revealed in The Herald's sister paper the Sunday Herald, would restore cash to tenants who from next month will lose a portion of housing benefit if they are deemed to have a spare bedroom.
The attack on UK welfare reforms came as the SNP stepped up efforts to reach out to women voters polls show are much less likely to support independence than men.
Ministers believe women will be disproportionately affected by the cuts and the suggestion benefits may be more generous in an independent Scotland followed a promise by Alex Salmond on Saturday to begin a "transformational shift" in childcare provision if Scots vote Yes next year.
Ms Sturgeon also used her conference speech to highlight strengths in the Scottish economy, including oil, telling delegates: "Scotland can afford to be independent and don't let anyone tell you different."
Scottish Labour MSP James Kelly said: "The SNP could do much more to help Scotland's most vulnerable, but instead they prefer to blame everyone rather than act. For all Nicola Sturgeon's warm words, reducing child poverty in Scotland has stalled under the SNP."
A Scotland Office spokesman said: "The UK spends £20bn on welfare and benefits in Scotland every year and the Scottish Government has yet to explain how it would sustain that level of funding if Scotland leaves the UK for good."
Meanwhile, council leaders condemned the "extreme and ill thought-out" welfare reforms due to come into force in just one week. As housing benefit is paid by councils, David O'Neill, president of local government body Cosla, told claimants no blame should be attached to local authorities for the changes. But he pledged councils would do everything in their power to help the most vulnerable.
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