ALMOST £1 billion of welfare cuts imposed by George Osborne in last week's budget will fall on Scotland, according to new figures from the House of Commons library.

Tom Gordon

Scottish Political Editor

ALMOST £1 billion of welfare cuts imposed by George Osborne in last week's budget will fall on Scotland, according to new figures from the House of Commons library.

Labour, who obtained the analysis, accused the Tory Chancellor of dropping a "billion pound bombshell" on hardworking families.

Osborne's cuts will take £12bn a year off the UK welfare bill by 2019-20.

Scotland's share will be £955m, of which £410m will come from cuts to tax credits and universal credit, £315m from the four-year freeze on working age benefits from 2016, and £230m from other measures, such as housing benefit cuts and a £20,000-a-year benefit cap.

The SNP also issued an analysis produced by the Scottish Parliament yesterday showing the "vast majority" of changes in the budget were in areas reserved to Westminster.

The Nationalists said it showed the new Scotland Bill going through Westminster remained hopelessly inadequate and no defence against a "slash and burn" Tory Chancellor.

The day after the budget, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned it would hit low-paid workers the hardest, despite Osborne's claim to be on the side of the "strivers".

The IFS said 13m families would lose an average of £260 a year because of tax and benefit changes, with 3m families likely to lose an average of £1000 a year.

Despite Osborne's flagship promise of a National Living Wage (NLW) of £9 an hour by 2020, the IFS said people receiving tax credits would still be "significantly worse off" overall.

It was "arithmetically impossible" for the NLW to compensate for the cuts to the working poor, the IFS said, as it would only add £4bn to pay packets, while tax credits were cut by £6bn.

The changes would also "reduce the incentive for the first earner in a family to enter work".

Ian Murray, Scotland's sole Labour MP and Shadow Scottish Secretary, said: "We know from independent experts that hard working families across Scotland will be worse off.

"Now we know the true extent - a one billion pound bombshell for hard working Scots.

"It is a shameful assault on people who go out to work and do the right thing. No amount of spin from George Osborne can disguise the devastating impact of his Budget.

"With extensive new powers over welfare coming to the Scottish Parliament, it is the responsibility of the Scottish Government to work with all parties to mitigate the damage."

The analysis calculated Scotland's share of the cuts by taking the scorecard of policy costings produced by the Treasury for the budget, and then estimating Scotland's share based on "relevant expenditure and claimant caseloads in each affected benefit and tax credit".

It said: "On this basis we can broadly estimate that Scotland's share of the £12bn total savings by the end of the Parliament will be in the region of £1bn (or 8 per cent of the total saving)."

The SNP's analysis, obtained from the Scottish Parliament's Information Centre, said it was "clear that the vast majority of the [budget] measures announced would continue to apply" after the new Scotland Bill came into effect, unless it was amended to include more powers.

The areas suffering the biggests cuts - tax credits and working age benefits - would be unaffected by the Bill, which is meant to translate the pre-referendum 'vow' of more devolution and the subsequent Smith Commission report into law.

However the Bill will enable Holyrood to offset the welfare cuts with "top-up payments", something which will puts pressure on the SNP to find more money to combat austerity.

The disability benefits being devolved by the Scotland Bill were unaffected by the budget.

The SNP said the findings undermined UK Government claims that the Bill would make Holyrood "one of the most powerful devolved Parliaments in the world" and contradicted Labour claims that "major new" Scotland Bill powers can protect Scotland from the Tories.

SNP MSP Linda Fabiani, who sat on the Smith Commission, said: "This new analysis lays out the limitations of the Bill - and shows exactly why we need a strengthened package of powers.

"The fact that none of Wednesday's announcements involved benefits set to be devolved shows George Osborne will still be able to slash and burn Scotland's welfare system even after the Scotland Bill comes into force.

"The Scottish Government will continue to do absolutely everything in its power to mitigate the impact of the Tories' harsh welfare reforms - but the fact is the Bill falls far short of the powers Scotland needs to thrive. Tory claims of a 'powerhouse Parliament' are laughable.

"The poorest people in society, including the working poor, have paid the price for the Tory obsession with austerity for far too long - it's time for full control over welfare and employment to be in Scotland's hands. This is the only way to guarantee a new approach with growth and fairness at its heart, rather than the Tories' failed, ideological commitment to cuts."

A UK Government spokesman said: "This Budget rewards work, backs aspiration and ensures fairness to taxpayers across the UK whilst protecting the most vulnerable.

"The Scotland Bill transfers control of income tax and gives the Scottish Parliament the power to top up any reserved benefit they wish. The onus is firmly on the Scottish Government to explain what they plan to do with these new powers. It is a debate they cannot escape from."