LABOUR’S benefits cuts will snatch as much as £4681 per year from around 45,000 Scots, new analysis has found.
Keir Starmer has been warned his plans to slash the welfare bill risk “pushing people into poverty and destitution”, after research showed disabled people or the long-term sick could lose £390 per month due to the changes.
The Government will press ahead with Tory welfare cuts in a bid to cut the historically high numbers of people permanently out of work, which has remained high since the pandemic.
House of Commons research commissioned by the SNP showed that Labour’s plans to trim £3 billion from the benefits bill would leave around 45,000 Scots worse off by around £4,681.
Disability charity Scope has previously warned that the cuts would “lead to even more disabled people living in poverty”.
Kirsty Blackman (above), the SNP’s work and pensions spokesperson, said: “The Labour Party is breaking its promise to end austerity cuts, and pushing people into poverty and destitution, by slashing support for the most vulnerable.
“Voters were promised change but instead Labour ministers are lining their own pockets with thousands of pounds of freebies while imposing devastating austerity cuts on the rest of us.
“The Labour Government has taken the winter fuel payment from 900,000 Scottish pensioners, pushed thousands of Scottish children into poverty by keeping the two-child cap, and now they want to take money away from the sick or disabled as the Chancellor wields the austerity axe.”
She said that UK benefits policies were already “substantially less generous” than other European countries, adding: “There must be a U-turn and these austerity cuts must be scrapped – or the Labour Party will never be forgiven in Scotland.”
It comes as Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver her first Budget on Wednesday.
Speaking on Monday, the Chancellor said she had been forced to make “difficult decisions on spending, on welfare and taxation”.
Some Government departments are facing cuts but extra money has been pledged for the NHS.
Also on Monday, Starmer used a speech in Birmingham to defend impending tax rises, saying they would “prevent austerity and rebuild public services”.
But he warned there were no “short cuts” to reach “better days” in the future.
