The Scottish Government has spent £350 million to mitigate the cost of the "cruel" Tory-imposed bedroom tax over the last five years.
The figures were revealed in a written answer to SNP MSP Elena Whitham, who branded it "the embodiment of the cost of living with Westminster".
The bedroom tax was introduced in 2013 by the then Tory-Lib Dem coalition government at Westminster.
It means a claimant will receive less in housing benefit or housing costs through Universal Credit if they are living in a property with one or more spare bedrooms.
Tenants in social housing could have their benefits reduced by 14 per cent if they have a spare bedroom or 25 per cent if they have two or more.
But following a campaign by the Record, the Scottish Government agreed to mitigate the costs of the policy in Scotland.
Opposition parties have long called for the UK Government to scrap the bedroom tax but the Tories continue to support it.
In the written answer, social justice secretary Shona Robison said: "Scotland has budgeted £429 million in total for Discretionary Housing Payments since DHPs were devolved in 2017 to the 2022-23 financial year.
"This is broken down into £349 million for mitigation of the bedroom tax and £80.4 million for mitigating the impact of other welfare reforms."
Elena Whitham, convener of Holyrood's social security committee, said: "The bedroom tax is one of the many callous policies introduced by the Tories during their 12 years in power at Westminster.
"It is the embodiment of the cost of living with Westminster.
"The Scottish Government has invested close to half a billion pounds to mitigate the bedroom tax and provide other housing financial support to maintain people in their tenancies.
"That is money that could be spent pulling people out of poverty and instead we are having to use it to plug the cuts of the Tories."
The SNP MSP added: "Scotland can do so much more than just clean up the mess of the Tories – one they are making even worse whilst ignoring the UK cost of living crisis.
"That is why we need the full range of powers that independence would bring to build a fairer, more equal Scotland."
The UK Government insisted the removal of "the spare room subsidy" had been an important tool to help to manage housing support expenditure and enable mobility within the social rented sector.
A spokesman for the DWP said: “We recognise the pressures on the cost of living and we are doing what we can to help, including spending £22 billion across the next financial year to support people in Scotland and across the UK.
"This includes putting an average of £1,000 more per year into the pockets of working families via changes to Universal Credit, cutting fuel duty and helping households with their energy bills through our £9.1 billion Energy Bills Rebate.
"During the pandemic we increased Local Housing Allowance significantly and beyond inflation, benefitting over one million households by an average of over £600 over the year.
"We’re maintaining that boost, keeping support for private renters above pre-pandemic levels."
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