The cost-of-living tsunami will plunge 20,000 Scottish children into poverty without emergency government action.
Huge energy bill hikes coupled with rocketing inflation and tax rises will cripple the finances of thousands of the poorest families, who are already struggling to make ends meet.
It means the £20-a-week "game-changing" Scottish Child Payment increase to help the most needy has been rendered almost worthless.
Leading charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has told the Sunday Mail the UK and Scottish Governments must provide urgent support payments to low-income households of at least £500 to stave off a poverty crisis.
A rise in the energy price cap in April will cause heating bills for millions to double at a time of unprecedented rising prices for basic goods and tax hikes.
It has been estimated low-paid workers will be left £1200 a year worse off in 2022, with the RMT union calling the squeeze a "national disgrace".
Food poverty campaigner Jack Monroe highlighted how an already eye-watering official inflation rate of 5.4 per cent is a gross underestimate for people on low incomes, who have seen some everyday food items like pasta and rice soar by a staggering 344 per cent.
Chris Birt, of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, has issued a shocking wake-up call to Government ministers – warning that, without action, 20,000 children in Scotland are at risk of devastating poverty.
He said:“For those who currently receive it the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment in April will mean an extra £520 a year per child.
"Our most recent research found the benefits increase would save 20,000 children from poverty – but that gain is now likely to be wiped out by increases in energy costs and other price rises.
"We are calling on the UK Government to provide an emergency £500 payment to everyone in receipt of Universal Credit, equivalent legacy benefits and Pension Credit.
"The Scottish Government also needs to double the child payment for all children as soon as possible and redouble efforts to reduce fuel poverty.
"This cost-of-living crisis underlines the inadequacy of our social security system and weaknesses in our economy and public services. Low-income families, as brilliantly demonstrated by food campaigner Jack Monroe, pay a poverty premium and have far fewer choices in terms of what they can cut back on.
"If budgets are already tight and you're only just getting by now, what happens when your bills go up by £500?
"For the poorest, it really does become about being able to eat or to heat your home."
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: "This shocking report lays bare the scale of the threat posed to the people of the country by the looming cost-of-living crisis, which will be utterly devastating in the year to come if people don’t get the help they need.
"It is scandalous that there are families being pushed into poverty while both of Scotland's governments sit on their hands.
"Households already being hit by sky-high inflation are going to be squeezed even further by Tory taxes and the rising energy price cap, all while the SNP allows rail fares and water bills to rise.
"That's why Labour has a plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and help families across the UK with soaring energy bills."
The official cost of living rose by 5.4 per cent in the 12 months to December – the highest rate in 30 years.
But poverty activist Monroe gave examples of the prices of the cheapest available staple products such as pasta, rice and peanut butter at her local supermarket being in some cases more than double what they were last year.
Food banks handed out 32 meals a minute across the UK over the past six months as hungry families struggled to feed themselves.
Scottish Lib Dem economy spokesperson Willie Rennie said: "Alongside rising fuel and electricity prices, families have seen the cost of their weekly shop soar.
"What's worse is that the Scottish Government is bullying councils into raising council tax, so from April there will be an additional burden that people will have to plan for.
"This is a budget that is out of touch with how the average Scot lives.
"There is a real risk of more people falling into poverty as a result of this cost-of-living crunch."
Scottish Conservative Miles Briggs said: "Only this week the Poverty and Inequality Commission delivered a damning verdict on the SNP's record in failing to hit their poverty targets.
"Ministers have been very good on warm words but have failed to deliver the urgent action needed to tackle poverty."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We will publish our next Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan in March and it will outline the transformational actions we will take alongside our delivery partners to tackle child poverty.
"We will double the Scottish Child Payment to £20 per week from April and will invest £361million above the level of funding from the UK Government on social security in 2022/23.
"The Delivery Plan will also set out other levers we will use and actions to take – for example, on employment, maximising incomes and affordable housing, which all contribute to reducing child poverty.
"However, we cannot do it alone – we must work together across society to deliver on this mission."
UK Government ministers have acknowledged the financial hit coming down the line.
Defence Minister James Heappey said people were "feeling the squeeze" of rising prices and the Government was in "listening mode".
Senior backbench MPs Robert Jenrick and Mel Stride have called for a planned rise in National Insurance to be delayed but the Treasury has insisted it has no plans for a pause.
Under the tax rise plans, employees, employers and the self-employed will all pay 1.25p more in the pound for National Insurance from April 2022 for a year – after which the extra tax will be collected as a new Health and Social Care Levy.
The increase will see an employee on £20,000 a year pay an extra £130 in tax.
Someone on £50,000 will pay £505 more.
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