Benefits
■£1.4m lost in disability payments
Rutherglen is one of the areas in Scotland being hit hardest by cuts to disability benefits, according to shocking new figures.
A total of 420 vulnerable people who previously qualified for Disability Living Allowance benefits have been refused them following the switch to Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
That represents a total of £1.4million to last October.
Rutherglen and Hamilton West’s figures are the ninth highest in Scotland’s 59 constituencies.
PIP is the new non-means-tested benefit for people aged between 16 and 24 with longterm health conditions, or impairments, whether physical or mental.
The figures show the average loss per 100,000 of the population in Rutherglen and Hamilton West would be £399.
The numbers were revealed after freedom of information figures were requested from the Department of Work & Pensions by investigative journalism website the Ferret, and were slammed by disability campaign groups and opposition parties.
Anti-poverty campaigner Denis Curran MBE said benefits cuts have led to a “massive increase” in residents relying on emergency food parcels to feed their families.
He explained: “It is always the poorest and most vulnerable who are hit the hardest and the cuts – not just to disability payments – but to benefits as a whole have left many families