FRIDAY: a cold, snowy day in Easterhouse.

The place where, 11 years ago, in March 2002, Iain Duncan Smith, then the leader of the Conservatives, was so disturbed by the social conditions that he boldly embraced a new philosophy of tackling poverty.

That was then. Last week, just 48 hours after George Osborne's latest, cold-comfort Budget, the reaction in Easterhouse generally is as wintry as the weather. No-one here can see much that will help people like them.

Martin Sime, chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, described Iain Duncan Smith, now Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, as ''the architect of the biggest assault on the poor in living memory''.

Writing exclusively for the Sunday Herald, Sime says: ''On Wednesday, our Secretary of State for Welfare will sneak across the Border. He has reluctantly agreed to meet with some MSPs behind closed doors before addressing a private-sector-run conference in the capital. His many victims will be absent from both events. Once viewed as patrician but with well-meaning intent to address poverty and inequality, it's clear now that this was just a masquerade."

Sime describes the Government's real Work Programme's aim as "simply to harass and intimidate unemployed people, and the result is a huge spike in the number of people receiving no benefits at all". He adds: "It's on the back of such misery that savings are made.''

Sitting in Bannatyne House, the bright, warm home of Family Action in Rogerfield and Easterhouse (Fare), Rosemary Dickson, the charity's chief executive, has real fears for the future.

With changes looming that will replace council tax benefit with a council tax reduction scheme, and the already infamous bedroom tax, how will claimants here survive?

"With great difficulty,'' says Dickson. "I don't think the full implications will be realised until people see they have been hit from several directions, and realise how little money they have in their budget.

"You might get someone saying, 'My rent's due but the kids need new shoes' - something's got to give. It could end up as a permanent balancing act of choosing what not to pay, or what not to buy, this month.

"It could be your rent or electricity bill not being paid, or you missing out on a couple of meals."

She adds: "I don't think anyone would disagree that some change was required [in the benefits system]. In the current, wider climate, what is needed is measured change at a measured pace, with measured investment.

"So if you're introducing something like the bedroom tax, then invest in housing to make sure there are sufficient numbers of smaller households. You're investing in infrastructure, you're providing somewhere for a person who needs a smaller house, you're creating jobs.

"The speed of the change is the real challenge, not the fact that change is happening. It's the speed, without the balance at the other side to meet these requirements."

One of her Fare colleagues, project manager Bobby Kerr, says he once thought Iain Duncan Smith's reaction after his visit to Easterhouse was ''pretty genuine''. But today he says: ''His main concern then was cutting red tape, but at the moment he seems to be putting red tape in place."

Kerr adds: "What annoys me about the Tories when they came into power was that David Cameron was shouting about how they were the party of families and community.

"But they are breaking up families and splitting communities. The big no-no up here is the bedroom tax.

"There are people who have lived here most of their life having to move out of the community because they would have to pay extra money for extra bedrooms. They've lived there maybe 20 years, brought their family up in it [their home]. But the problem is that some areas up here don't have any houses in that same area to re-house them, so they've moving out."

Josephine McGlone, 56, an administration officer, tells of the "horrendous" experience her daughter had in trying to find a job, before she finally got a college place. She and Kerr talk passionately about the need for a proper living wage. Says McGlone: "I don't think the Tories live in the real world, no matter who they send to walk round an area like this."

Sitting next to them is Cameron Gray, 18, a kitchen assistant, who has worked at Fare for six months. The charity plays a sizeable part in the life of Easterhouse, an area that remains decent and positive despite its poverty being constantly highlighted. That said, there are social problems to be addressed here. Fare is now exploring the idea of what Dickson calls a "food initiative".

"Years ago, it wasn't uncommon for us to supply a family with food to see them over the weekend. We haven't had to do things like that for eight or nine years, but we're starting to see more people coming forward on that basis.

"We're torn between wanting to meet that need and not wanting to offer something that is just an 'alternative shop'. That's not what it should be. We're looking at the best way of meeting the needs of people in crisis without creating something that allows people who might be out of the benefit system to become a hidden statistic because they're getting support from [the centre].

"We're looking at a combination of a foodbank for small emergencies and foodshare, where we're potentially cooking the food and serving it."

It has not escaped those working on the frontline of the fight against poverty that at a time when Rich Ricci, the chief of Barclays investment arm, pockets nearly £18 million in a shares bonanza, it should be coming to things like this in Easterhouse.

"People are having to think, 'Do I put electricity in my meter or do I cut down on the food I'm cooking?'" says Dickson.

"Are we going to go back to the time when people put newspaper in the soles of their shoes? I had thought we had moved on from those days. You can tighten your belt as much as you like, but there comes to a point where you can't tighten any further. Something you were previously doing, you have to stop doing.

"I don't see things improving any time soon," she says on the wider economic picture. "People might say it will take 10 years to come out recession. That's quick and easy to say. But 10 years is a long, long time. It might take another five years to come out. But what happens to people in that time?

"People in Easterhouse have become more aspirational over the last few years but I can see this being chipped away and in 10 years' time we'll be back to where we were, many years ago, and starting again from the bottom."

As the Easterhouse community worker Bob Holman, who helped set up Fare, said last summer: "Iain Duncan Smith is paradox personified. He wept at the plight of the poor yet now hands out punishments that must bring tears to their eyes."