North Lanarkshire Poverty

The number of hard-up North Lanarkshire residents who continue to live on the breadline has been laid bare in stark council figures.

The local authority’s Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) have shown there were 8897 applications for a crisis grant, which provides a safety net in a disaster or emergency situation, from April to December last year. The fact that almost 9000 families in North Lanarkshire have had to apply for these crisis grants just to survive is completely unacceptable. The Tory welfare cuts are an attack on the poorest in our community. The fact that more and more people are being forced to go to the local council for grants and use our foodbanks is a direct result of this attack.

The council’s finance convener Bob Burrows told the Wishaw Press that the situation could get even worse over the next two years. He said: “As a result of Scottish Government changes to the funding arrangements for the Scottish Welfare Fund which took effect from April 2016, North Lanarkshire Council will see a reduction in funding in each of the next three years culminating in a total reduction of £411,000 per annum by 2019. This means less money available for local people who apply for grants to support them and their families. Although North Lanarkshire has high levels of deprivation and a higher than average number of applications to the Scottish Welfare Fund, we are receiving proportionately less funding.