INDEPENDENCE would be a "leap in the dark" for pensioners, Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran has warned, after Better Together issued a new paper on welfare.
The 23-page study, based on published research, said spending on benefits for pensioners was projected to rise faster in Scotland than the rest of the UK in the coming decades, owing to the country's ageing population.
It also highlighted figures showing overall pension and benefit spending was £60 per head higher per person in Scotland than the rest of the UK.
The paper, A Sharing Union, argued that payments were more secure as part of the larger UK.
Launching the paper at a pensioners' club in Glasgow, Ms Curran said: "The experts are clear - if we leave the UK we would have to make massive cuts in public spending. This would hit those who have the least hardest. Leaving the UK would be a leap in the dark for those reliant on benefits or their pension."
Yes Scotland, the cross party pro-independence campaign, dismissed the claims.
Speaking on behalf of the campaign, Bob Thomson, a former chairman of the Scottish Labour Party, said: "It is a sad day when the Labour Party are praising a Tory pensions and welfare system that is being dismantled before our eyes. It is extraordinary that Labour are describing as secure a UK welfare system which is cutting £6 billion from welfare support in Scotland".
"Margaret Curran herself has called the Tory welfare cuts 'brutal' which will cause 'misery for families across Scotland' - yet the Labour leadership prefer Tory government in Scotland to self-government with independence."
The SNP Government proposes to share the UK's welfare system until 2018 if Scots vote Yes in the referendum, provided key policies could be introduced from 2016.
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