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POOR and jobless Scots are grateful when the Con-Dems punish them by cutting their benefits.

That was the astonishing claim yesterday from the Whitehall mandarin behind the hated

sanctions regime.

Neil Couling, a top civil servant at Iain Duncan Smith’s Department for Work and Pensions, told outraged MSPs: “My experience is that many benefit recipients welcome the jolt that the sanctions can give to them.

“Some people will no doubt react very badly. But others recognise that it is the wake-up call they needed, and it helps them get back into work.”

Jamie Hepburn of the SNP asked sarcastically if JobCentres got lots of thank you cards from sanction victims.

But Couling replied: “Yes, that is not unremarkable.”

He also flatly denied that the soaring use of food banks in Scotland was proof of the misery caused by DWP policies. He said people who used the banks were simply making “an economic choice”.

Couling’s claims will enrage thousands of Scots, many with children, who are on the breadline because of moves to hugely increase the number of sanctions.

And critics will see his words as a new low in the Government’s attitude to the poorest people in society.

Couling was sent north to defend the DWP’s policies to Holyrood’s welfare reform committee after Tory minister Esther McVey decided not to attend.

As director of benefit strategy at the DWP, he has played a major role in driving the rise in the use of sanctions.

More than 36,000 Scots had benefits cut or stopped as a punishment for “not doing enough to find work” in the eight months after new rules were introduced in 2012.

And between October 2012 and July 2013, 53,270 sanctions were imposed in Scotland.

The DWP say they are a last resort, but a man who has dyslexia was sanctioned for not using the internet to look for jobs.

JobCentre staff stopped a man’s benefits because he applied for two jobs one week and four the next – not three each week.

And a woman in Glasgow had her benefits docked for missing an appointment at the JobCentre – because she was on a work placement the JobCentre had sent her to.

Martin Sime, head of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, told us in January that 40 per cent of people who appealed against sanctions succeeded.

That, he said, proved the punishments were “unfairly and poorly applied”.

Couling has denied claims by JobCentre staff that bosses set targets for the number of sanctions they must impose.

Charities say sanctions are a leading reason why Scots are forced to use food banks to feed their families.

But Couling yesterday parroted the Con-Dem line that more people are using food banks simply because there are more food banks around.

He said no “causal link” had been established between benefit cuts and food bank use. And he suggested users were making “an economic choice” to save cash.

More than 56,000 people used Scots food banks run by the Trussell Trust between April 2013 and this February. The figure for the previous 12 months was 14,318.

(Image: Getty Images)

Kevin Stewart of the SNP told Couling he was talking “complete and utter nonsense”. He added: “I would suggest you go and speak to folk at food banks.”

Afterwards, Stewart said: “Mr Couling may have been joking when he claimed sanctions were bringing thank you cards from benefits claimants to his office.

“But there is nothing funny about people who have to line up to receive vital food parcels for their hungry children.

“Amidst Mr Couling’s contradictory claims, he did concede that ‘the chances of having a sanction is going up’.

“That’s the grim reality for people unable to find work. It means they have no income and are forced to use food banks.”

Labour’s Ken Macintosh slammed the Tories for “sending officials to Parliament with orders to hold the line”.

He added: “The Committee heard further powerful evidence that, instead of alleviating poverty, these sanctions are hurting people with mental health problems and forcing others to rely on food handouts.

“The DWP seem intent on ignoring the impact of their own reforms.”

Jamie Livingstone, head of Oxfam Scotland, said it was “not credible” to deny the link between welfare cuts and food banks.

And Keith Dryburgh of Citizens Advice Scotland said 90 per cent of the service’s advisers believed welfare cuts and food bank use were linked.