Nearly 50% of households in Scotland claiming Universal Credit from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are having £10 million in "poverty tax" each month deducted from their benefits.
In a single month alone in 2021, around 180,000 homes in Scotland had on average £60 taken from their social security payments, according to official data.
As reported exclusively by our sister site the Daily Record, the large figure — from November — was primarily to pay back loans that were issued by the DWP for the five-week wait period at the start of a new Universal Credit claim.
