NAPPIES, heating and food worth £173 million have been purchased through the lifeline Scottish Welfare Fund in the past five years, figures confirm.
The cash pot was established in 2013 to help struggling households meet essential living costs and recover from floods and similar emergencies.
More than 300,000 people had benefited as of the end of June this year, with around one-third of claims made by families with children.
As many as 16,175 applications were made between April and June alone.
Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said she was “dismayed” by the numbers.
And she said there will be no let-up in demand as Westminster refuses to halt the roll-out of Universal Credit.
Switching welfare claimants to this benefit was supposed to save public cash and the Department for Work and Pensions insists it is helping more people into work more quickly.
But Somerville said: “As the UK Government persists with the roll-out Universal Credit, forcing more and more families into poverty, we are going to continue to see an increase in people needing such support. Scotland will have lost £3.7 billion in welfare benefits a year by the end of this decade.
“The Chancellor’s announcement of extra funding towards Universal Credit does not get close to mitigating the damaging impact of this policy and families will still have less money in their pockets and a minimum five-week delay before getting Universal Credit
“Therefore we will not stop calling on the UK Government to halt the roll-out of this fundamentally flawed system. We are spending over £125m this year alone trying to allay the very worst effects of the UK Government’s harmful welfare cuts and protect those on low incomes.”
Graeme Brown of Shelter Scotland commented: “High housing costs combined with low income and stagnant wages are pushing more and more households into poverty.”
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