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The UK Government has been blasted for ignoring the damning evidence on Universal Credit.

In a new attack on the DWP, Shirley-Anne Somerville said thousands of families were being pushed into poverty.

The Scottish Social Security Secretary said: "UK Government is still refusing to listen to the overwhelming evidence that Universal Credit, the benefit cap and the benefit freeze have caused significant hardship and misery to thousands of people and families."

She spoke out after the 2019 Annual Report on Welfare Reform showed the largest reductions since 2015 are as a result of the benefit freeze, two-child cap and changes to the work allowance.

(Image: Jerome Ellerby)

It shows 8,500 families in Scotland have already had their income cut by the two-child limit and that figure will reach 40,000 at full rollout, bringing up to 20,000 youngsters into poverty.

Ms Somerville continued: "This report - the seventh we have produced - lays bare the evidence that households are having to cope with a reduction in their income of thousands of pounds - many of them with children.

"The Scottish Government will not stand by and let people who are already struggling continue to face a reliance on foodbanks and the stress of debt and rent arrears."

Figures from the report revealed 86 per cent of UC claimants have seen a fall in the amount they can earn before losing their entitlement.

It also revealed 91 per cent of Scottish households affected by the benefit cap contain children.

(Image: Daily Record)

The cap has impacted more than 3,000 households which are losing an average of more than £3,000 per year.

Around 5,600 couples are predicted to lose up to £7,000 per year by 2023/2024 because of changes to pension credit eligibility.

The Scottish Government has committed to spend at least £100 million each year in response to the welfare cuts.

A UK Government spokeswoman said: "Tackling poverty will always be a priority for this government. Absolute poverty is lower than it was in 2010, there are more people in work than ever before, and wages continue to outpace inflation.

"But we know some families need more support, which is why we continue to spend £95 billion a year on working-age benefits.

"Meanwhile, Scotland has significant welfare powers, including flexibilities within UC and the power to top up existing benefits, pay discretionary payments and create entirely new benefits altogether."

The problems with Universal Credit and the benefit freeze extend across the UK.

In April 2019, the UK Government extended the freeze for a fourth year in a row despite calls to end it a year earlier than the planned cut-off point in 2020.

There is a benefit cap in place of £23,000 a year in London and £20,000 outside London.

Benefit freezes and caps since the Tories took power in 2010 have cost families £888 to £1,845 per year, according to research commissioned by the Work and Pensions Committee.

Typical parents in work with two children would be £1,845 better off in 2019/20 if not for the freezes since 2010.

Working parents with one child are losing out by £1,429, and jobless single parents by £1,303 if they have two kids, or by £888 if they have one child.

Jobless couples with two children lose out by £1,515, or by £1,099 if they have one child.

More than a third of people affected by the freeze on benefits have less than £100 a month to live on after they have paid rent and bills for food, council tax and gas and electricity, according to Citizens Advice.

Universal Credit claimants are hardest hit with more than half saying they had gone without essentials such as food and toiletries.

Nearly the same number had lost sleep over money worries, the charity reported.

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Disabled people and those with children were most likely to have gone without essentials, with nearly half of both groups reporting that this had happened to them at least once in the past 12 months.

Citizens Advice said freezing the level of most benefits such as Universal Credit and Tax Credits since 2016 was having "serious consequences."

A UK Government spokesperson added: "There are no current plans to extend or maintain the benefit freeze after March 2020.

"Universal credit is supporting more than two million people and it’s working for the vast majority. Advance payments provide money urgently for people if they need it and there are measures in place to ensure repayments are affordable."