Welfare cuts push families to crisis point
Over 30 desperate families applied to the Scottish Welfare Fund every day in the first two months of the financial year according to shock new figures.
A report by South Lanarkshire Council reveals they received 1868 applications between April 1 and May 31.
Of those applications, 1106 were successful.
A total of 620 crisis grants were dished out in that period. A further 486 community care grants were also awarded, with the council using £461,000 of its £2.5million allocation from the Scottish Government.
The figures were presented to councillors last week.
Focussing on the impact of welfare reform, the report reveals that 37 households across the region were affected by the benefit cap, with an average weekly reduction of £57 a week.
From May 18 this year, benefits paid to a household with children was capped at £385, down from the previous £500. For single people, that figure was reduced from £350 per week to £258.
The council processed 4529 applications for discretionary housing payments in the first two months of the year.
Council officers say the majority of these were related to the bedroom tax with over 3500 council tenants affected.
Of those, 992 are in rent arrears to the tune of £421,000.
And the manager of East Kilbride’s Citizen’s Advice Bureau told the News this matches what they deal with day in day out.
Michelle Campbell said: “We have seen a massive increase in general for all benefit applications.
“We have assisted with 686 benefit enquiries since April this year, which equates to over 30 per cent of our workload, five per cent of which have been assisting with applications to the Scottish welfare fund.
“We have also seen an increase in requests for assistance with discretionary housing payment applications.
“We have seen a big rise in assistance being sought from the foodbanks around the town.”