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Struggling Scots have received more than £22billion in vital tax credits since Gordon Brown introduced his flagship policy 15 years ago.

Now Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has warned the Tories are set to destroy a measure that has lifted millions of children out of poverty.

The Tax Credits Act, passed in July 2002, was hailed as the biggest reform since the Beveridge Report and aimed to make a difference to the working poor.

Subsequent research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies confirmed the policy was responsible for plummeting levels of pensioner and child poverty during Labour’s time in government.

(Image: © SWNS.com)

Statistics compiled by the Scottish Parliament’s information centre have shown the impact in Scotland.

They revealed an average of £1.8billion of tax credits has been handed to Scots every year since they were introduced in Brown’s 2003 budget.

On average, 452,000 Scottish families – including 689,000 children – have benefited from payments of about £4000 each year. But the Tories have been determined to remove tax credits and were only forced to abandon a steep cut to payments in the last parliament after Labour peers in the House of Lords delayed the move.

As Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary in 2009, Tory Prime Minister Theresa May claimed the benefit was suppressing people’s aspiration to transform their lives.

Recently, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson defended a controversial cap on child tax credits for a third child and the associated “rape clause”.

(Image: AFP)

Dugdale last night insisted only a UK Labour government can safeguard tax credits for the next generation of children.

She said: “This week marks the 15th anniversary of Labour’s transformational policy to introduce tax credits. But our achievements are under threat from the Tories.

“Only a Labour government working for the many can safeguard tax credits for the next generation of Scots.”

A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: “The only legacy Labour left was horrific public debts, a welfare system that didn’t work, and a country on the verge of bankruptcy.”