SCOTLAND’S largest council has experienced an "overwhelming" surge in vulnerable residents seeking emergency cash.
Glasgow City Council said the number of people applying for money through the Scottish Welfare Fund has almost doubled since 2013/14.
The volume of crisis grants – which provide help for people who need money quickly because of an emergency or disaster – has boomed by 130 per cent.
It comes after it emerged Scottish ministers have cut almost £2million in real terms from the welfare fund, with Glasgow experiencing a funding drop of around a quarter.
Scottish Labour’s social security spokesman Mark Griffin condemned as unacceptable “SNP cuts to the welfare fund at a time of soaring demand”.
READ MORE: Housing benefit reforms causing crisis and debt, minister claims
He said: “The Scottish Welfare Fund does important work, but rather than getting the support it needs it has actually had its funding cut by almost £2 million in real terms, with a 25 per cent cut in Glasgow.
“We need a social security system that properly protects Scotland’s most vulnerable people."
The party previously highlighted figures from independent Holyrood researchers showing a real terms cut to the Scottish Welfare Fund of £1.8 million since 2015/16, due to a funding freeze by the Scottish Government.
The welfare fund is designed to provide a safety net for those on low incomes through mechanisms such as crisis grants.
In evidence to Holyrood’s social security committee, Glasgow City Council said it had made funding awards to 58,000 vulnerable citizens between 2013 and March 2016.
It added: “However, since the reduction in Glasgow’s funding allocation of £900,000 over the period April 2016 to March 2018 the council has contributed £250,000 of its own funds to meet demand.”
It said it had also committed to maintaining the welfare fund’s budget this year in the face of another funding cut of £700,000 from central government.
READ MORE: Housing benefit reforms causing crisis and debt, minister claims
Council analysis revealed the “overwhelming increase in demand” was due to benefits changes and sanctions being rolled out by the UK Government, as well as coping with asylum seekers and refugees.
And it warned the full impact of the introduction of Universal Credit – which bundles six benefits into a single monthly payment – was yet to be felt.
A Scottish Government spokesman said it had maintained funding despite cuts from Westminster.
He said: “Despite continued, unnecessary, cuts to our budget from Westminster, we have maintained the level of funding for the Scottish Welfare Fund, helping more than 285,000 households in the last five years with rewards of almost £156 million.
“Under UK Government welfare cuts, money is being taken from the pockets of low income families, pushing them into crisis, debt and poverty.
“We will spend more than £127 million this year to try and mitigate that, and provide vital support for low income households – we will continue to do all we can to support hard pressed families and individuals.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel