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Families in Scotland are being made homeless due to the benefits cap and housed in “filthy” bed and breakfasts.

In the capital alone, the housing crisis has seen Edinburgh City Council paying out £120,000 a week to hostels and B&Bs.

It’s costing the council £440 a week to place a family in homeless accommodation that is not fit for purpose – including one hotel a guest reviewed as “the worst in Scotland, perhaps Europe”.

There are currently more than 1700 homeless children in the city, including 1356 under-fives.

In Edinburgh, at least 15 single mums and 40 children have been evicted in the last three months due to arbitrary welfare cuts.

Last November, the benefits cap was cut from £26,000 to £20,000 – typically leaving families unable to pay their rent.

Housing charity Shelter have dealt with single parents whose housing benefit has been axed to as little as 50p a week.

We have spoken to a number of homeless families in the capital where welfare cuts, high rents and a lack of social housing have created a perfect storm of despair.

Campaigners say they are facing Dickensian treatment, forced on to the streets with their belongings and told they can’t seek help from the council until the day of eviction.

Women have joined protests against the benefit changes across the city – including outside Tory leader Ruth Davidson’s office – organised by action group Power to the People.

In November 2016, the Chartered Institute of Housing claimed the benefits cap would have a “severe impact” on almost 20,000 children across Scotland.

Now that dire prediction is becoming a reality, with more than 10,000 households living in temporary accommodation and a household becoming homeless every 20 minutes.

And an increasing number of families are being housed in B&Bs in conditions even worse than temporary accommodation.

Ann Wedderburn, 33, and her three children – Madison, 13, Riley, 11, and five-year-old Scott – spent three weeks in hotel and homeless accommodation.

They had lived happily in a three-bedroom private let in Muirhouse but when the benefits cap was enforced, Ann found herself £400 short on the £825 monthly rent.

She fell in to more than £3000 of arrears and after eight years in the property, she was given eight weeks notice to quit by June 19 this year.

Ann said: “It was hard. It hurt to find my children in that situation.

“We spent most of their lives in that house and we didn’t want to leave. I have never felt so insecure.”

The council will not help families until they are on the streets. On that day, they have to wait for a storage company hired by the council to come and pick up their belongings.

The family then have to wait at a council housing office – usually for several hours – to find out where they will stay that night.

If they later want access to their belongings, they are charged £60 for each item taken out.

Ann said: ”Your whole world is in storage or plastic bags and you are sitting in a council office with only the goods you can carry.

“I sat there scared, wondering what was going to happen to us.

“Mentally, it was awful. I was crying, the children were crying. It didn’t feel real. I kept thinking something would happen, that the nightmare wasn’t real – but it was.”

Ann was devastated to be told she was to be placed in B&B accommodation at the Abbots House Hotel in Leith,which since last September has been used solely for the homeless.

The family were put in a shabby room with two single beds and one double. Ann said: “It was disgusting. Filthy. The girls couldn’t stop crying and Scott was withdrawn and unhappy.

(Image: Trip Advisor)

“As a mum, it was so hard to see my children so upset but there was nothing I could do.” Ann claims there were no laundry facilities for the family and only one microwave between 70 rooms – and even that wasn’t clean enough to use.

There was no fridge to house so much as a pint of milk.

And the family had use a bathroom at the end of a corridor, sharing with other guests – many of them single men and some of whom were clearly recovering addicts.

Madison found it intimidating to use the toilet in the night with men walking around the premises.

Ann said: “She hated it. They all did. There were loads of single, drunk and stoned men staring at her coming out of the bathroom. It felt completely unsafe.”

Ann prides herself on giving her children healthy cooked meals – but instead she had to feed them on takeaways. With no place to keep basics like butter and cheese, even a sandwich had to be the expensive, ready-made option.

She went to friends and family to cook and wash clothes but she found it humiliating to impose herself on others.

Ann and the children were in Abbots House for 15 days – despite legislation dictating that families should spend no more than 14 days in such properties.

(Image: UGC)

But they were then moved to another B&B, Almond House Lodge in Cramond.

Out of 325 reviews on TripAdvisor, 55 per cent rate the hotel as “poor” or terrible” – with one three weeks ago dubbing it “the worst hotel in Scotland, perhaps Europe”.

Reviewers said there were smelly carpets covered in hairs, mud, dead bugs and toenail clippings, with brown stains on sheets and pillowcases. Homeless families were in a separate area from other guests and claim they were in worse conditions.

The family shared two double beds and again there were no adequate laundry or cooking facilities, or even a fridge.

Ann said: “It was degrading. Like living in a prison camp.”

The children had a 20-minute bus journey to school, which cost Ann £60 a week in fares.

And Madison was teased by other youngsters when it was discovered she was homeless.

This week, figures showed there are 70,000 more children living in poverty now than there were five years ago after brutal attacks on welfare by the UK Government.

In 2011-12, 190,000 children were judged to be living in poverty after housing costs. By last year, the number had increased to 260,000.

Fiona McPhail, principal solicitor at Shelter Scotland, said she has dealt with single mothers with five children who have had their housing benefit reduced to 50p a week.

She said: “This may result in them using their child tax credits and child benefit to pay rent rather than directly on their children.

“I have concerns that this is leading to increased poverty.”

City councillor Susan Rae, who represents Leith Walk, said: “Lack of available social housing – combined with a decade of austerity, budget and benefits cuts – has created​ a crisis.

“The benefits cap was the final straw and as a result, we see women and children across the city losing their homes and any stability in their lives.

“Eviction has a catastrophic effect on individuals and families.”

A spokesman for Almond Lodge House and Abbots House Hotel said they met the standards required by the council, who inspected them regularly.

He added: “The standard of cleanliness is adequate. I can’t comment on whether they are suitable for families as I don’t place them there. You would need to take that up with the council.”

A council spokesman said: “Occasionally families are placed in B&B accommodation for longer than we would like.

“The council are committed to ensuring that families with children spend as short a time as possible in this form of accommodation and provide a range of services to advise and support people in securing and maintaining tenancies.”