1,140 ANGUS HOUSEHOLDS HELPED WITH HOUSING COSTS
SNP MSP for the Angus South Constituency, Graeme Dey, has welcomed the impact of Scottish Government intervention to protect hundreds of constituents from Tory welfare cuts and the Bedroom Tax, while decrying the state of affairs where such action is necessary.
New figures show that 1,140 Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) were made to people on low incomes across Angus between April and September of this year.
The total award value spent in Angus in this period was £611,200 – with an average award value of £536.
The Scottish Government’s DHP scheme is an extra payment to help with housing costs, including cuts to the local housing allowance, and covers the impact of the bedroom tax in full.
Mr Dey blasted the Tories’ continued defence of the bedroom tax.
Commenting, the Angus South MSP said:
“It’s outrageous that the Scottish Government is having to spend millions annually mitigating the ruinous policies of the Tory UK Government – the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights having said as much.
“That said, this SNP government will continue to do what it has to in order to shield people in Angus and across Scotland from the full force of such attacks on living standards.
“The two-child cap, the rape clause, the benefits freeze, in-work poverty, record food bank demand and rising child poverty – this is what a decade of Tory rule has reaped, with more of the same on offer in their latest manifesto.
“Scotland badly needs full control of its own affairs, so that we can deliver a compassionate social security system and a fairer society – not a reckless Brexit that could push 130,000 more people here into poverty.”
