CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond is facing a call to end the UK Government's freeze on benefits when he delivers his budget.
The call from SNP MP Neil Gray came after new figures showed families are set to lose £1.7billion in financial support.
House of Commons Library statistics show that the four-year benefits freeze could lead to £5.2bn of cuts by 2019-20 rather than the £3.5b originally intended, due to rising inflation.
Gray, the SNP social justice spokesperson, called on Hammond to reverse the cuts when he delivers his budget on Wednesday, November 22.
He said:“With a Tory extreme Brexit set to make families even poorer – the UK government must use this budget to reverse these cuts and boost household incomes.”
Meanwhile, Scotland's finance Secretary has called on the Chancellor to halt the roll-out of Universal Credit to fix "fundamental flaws".
Derek Mackay urged Hammond to use his autumn Budget later this month to change the benefits round-up to prevent it "pushing more families into poverty".
The controversial measure, which is being rolled out across the UK, brings six existing benefit payments into one - but critics have claimed the six week wait some people have for their first payment is contributing to a rise in debt, rent arrears and evictions.
In a letter to the Chancellor, Mackay said the announcement by the Work and Pensions Secretary to offer Universal Credit advances upfront would "do nothing to fix the fundamental design flaws with Universal Credit".
A UK Government spokesman said: "The best way to help people improve their lives is through work, and Universal Credit claimants are moving into work faster and staying in work longer than the old system.
"The vast majority of people are paid their Universal Credit in full and on time and advance payments and budgeting support is available for anyone who needs extra help. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government now has significant welfare powers including flexibility over Universal Credit payments."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here