UK Labour’s welfare cuts risk reversing hard-won progress in tackling poverty across the Highlands, warns Maree Todd MSP.
The Caithness, Sutherland and Ross representative has called on the UK Government to scrap plans to slash £4.8 billion from benefits by 2029.
She says the impact will be felt deeply in Highland communities already stretched by years of austerity.
According to the UK Government’s own figures, the reforms will strip support from 3.2 million families.
Each affected household stands to lose around £1,720 a year.
Analysis from the Department for Work and Pensions suggests 250,000 more people will be pushed into poverty.
Of those, 50,000 are children.
The changes will also hit disability support hard, with 800,000 people set to be denied access to benefits they currently receive.
They face losing as much as £4,500 annually.
Speaking ahead of a Scottish Government debate on the issue, Maree Todd said the direction of travel from Westminster is all too familiar.
She accused Labour of following in the footsteps of the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition’s austerity agenda.
That decade of cuts, she said, left communities reeling and widened the gap between the rich and poor.
Recent studies have linked austerity to rising levels of low birthweight and preterm births in deprived areas.
Todd says the latest round of cuts signals more of the same.
She calls it a political decision with real consequences for families already on the edge.
While Holyrood controls some welfare spending, many of the key powers remain with Westminster.
This year alone, the Scottish Government will spend £210 million trying to offset UK benefit changes.
That includes covering cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment.
Todd says the SNP Government is committed to a fairer, more compassionate welfare system.
But she warns that mitigation efforts are becoming unsustainable in the face of repeated blows from Westminster.
She is particularly concerned about the toll on Highland families.
The region faces unique challenges with cost of living, transport, and access to services.
She argues that further cuts could set back efforts to tackle rural poverty by a generation.
Todd is urging the UK Labour Government to reconsider its plans and put vulnerable people first.
She says the focus should be on support and fairness, not punishment.
Her message is clear — poverty is a political choice, and it is time to make a different one.
