Hundreds of thousands to lose benefits as £4bn cut to Scottish social security spend looms

Hundreds of thousands of people of people in Scotland have lost or will lose some of their benefit payments due to the UK government cuts, according to a new report by the Scottish Government.

The statutory report, which has been presented to the Scottish Parliament, estimates that the UK government’s annual social security spend in Scotland will decline by £3.9 billion by 2020/21.

Local authority level analysis suggests that West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Dundee, Inverclyde and North Lanarkshire will see the most significant falls in welfare spending by 2020/21 relative to their working-age population size.

Social Security Minister Jeane Freeman said: “This report presents the stark reality of the UK Government’s austerity programme which imposes unjust welfare cuts that not only continue to cause misery and push more people into poverty, but also directly affect local economies across Scotland and attract international criticism.

“These cuts are damaging our people and they are harmful to our communities. Every pound taken away from those entitled to financial support not only affects those individuals and their families, it is also a pound less that is spent locally.

“Shockingly, with many of the harshest cuts still to come, the reforms will reduce spending on welfare in Scotland by nearly £4 billion a year by the end of this decade. This is in addition to the 9.2% (or £2.9 billion) real terms cuts between 2010-11 and 2019-20 that the Scottish Government will see in the day-to-day budget that pays for public services - and that is before the further £3.5 billion of cuts that are expected to be applied to public spending across the UK in 2019-20.

“That will obviously have an impact on the amount of money the Scottish Government has available within its budget to spend. And while we have used over £350 million since 2013/14 to mitigate against the worst damage, it is simply not possible to for us to mitigate all of the UK Government’s welfare cuts without major reductions in our expenditure in other vital public services, in growing our economy and in providing real opportunity to our young people

“The UK Government is responsible for all of this damage to individual lives and local communities and we will continue to use every opportunity to press the UK Government to reverse these unjust policies. They need to recognise that social security is the foundation of a just and decent society and that everyone, no matter their social or economic status, deserves to be treated fairly and with dignity and respect. ”