Scottish families were hit with £17 million in Universal Credit deductions in just one month, sparking fresh calls for urgent reform.
The SNP has demanded the Labour Government scrap the five-week wait for Universal Credit and implement an Essentials Guarantee to protect struggling households.
The five-week wait refers to the delay in receiving initial payments, during which claimants can take an advance—only to face reduced payments later as they repay the debt.
Critics say this system traps people in a spiral of hardship, forcing them to choose between heating and eating.
SallyAnn Kelly of Aberlour warned the wait leads to public debt from day one and pushes families into long-term poverty.
A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report found two in five families moving to Universal Credit can’t afford basic essentials during the wait.
The delay often exceeds five weeks due to administrative errors and processing issues, leaving claimants in limbo.
The charity has joined the SNP in calling for an Essentials Guarantee that ensures Universal Credit always covers the cost of essentials and blocks deductions from breaching this minimum threshold.
Kirsty Blackman MP, the SNP’s spokesperson on the Department for Work and Pensions, said Labour is continuing Tory policies by maintaining the five-week delay.
She said families in Scotland are being left without enough to survive while Westminster digs deeper into their already empty pockets.
She slammed Sir Keir Starmer’s government for offering change but delivering cuts, listing the two-child cap, disability benefit slashes and the scrapping of the Winter Fuel Payment as evidence of betrayal.
Blackman warned that Labour’s failure to act will define them as no different from the Conservatives when it comes to welfare policy.
She insisted that legislation to introduce an Essentials Guarantee must come urgently to stop further suffering.
She said the SNP has built a Scottish system on dignity and fairness, while Westminster remains focused on cuts.
Blackman said Scots must now ask if the real change needed is the choice of independence.
She said an independent Scotland could create a compassionate welfare state free from the austerity choices of Westminster parties.
The SNP says the five-week wait is unjustifiable in any modern welfare system and continues to call for immediate action.
Charities across the country have echoed the party’s stance, warning that families are being set up to fail from the very first step.
The row over deductions comes as the cost of living continues to bite, with many families already on the brink.
Campaigners argue that ending the five-week wait would be one of the simplest yet most impactful reforms to stop poverty before it starts.
They say the time for promises is over—what struggling families need now is policy change.
