THE number of crisis grants handed out to struggling Scots to pay for basics such as food and heating has surged by 14 per cent.

One in 10 of the grants made in 2016-17 were needed because benefit payments were late, with Holyrood’s Social Security Secretary Jeane Freeman criticising the UK Government’s “harsh welfare cuts”.

She made the comments after new figures showed £34.7 million was awarded to struggling households from the Scottish Welfare Fund in 2016-17. Since the scheme was set up in April 2013, more than 254,000 households have received cash worth £132.6m to help in difficult times.

Freeman said: “The Scottish Welfare Fund continues to provide a vital lifeline, supporting over a quarter-of-a-million low-income households, who are suffering from emergency and disasters in the last four years. For many, it provides much-needed help for the everyday itethat no-one should be denied simply because of the hardship they face.”

Crisis grants can be given to low-income families to help in an emergency, with increasing numbers of households applying for support. Councils received 164,965 requests for help in 2016-17, resulting in 116,830 grants being made worth an average of £79 – with the total value of crisis grants amounting to £9.3m.

In addition, community care grants totalling £25.4m were made in 2016-17. These help families facing exceptional pressures to buy one-off items such as cookers or washing machines.

A total of 42,775 grants were awarded, with an average value of £595.

Between 2015-16 and 2016-17, applications to the fund increased by about 21,250 (10 per cent) – with the rise due to a “a large increase in the number of crisis grant applications”. These were 14 per cent higher than in 2015-16, according to the Scottish Government report.

About two-fifths (41 per cent) of crisis grants applications were made because people had spent all of their benefit and any other income, a drop of six per cent on the previous year.

Just over 17,500 applications were made because of delays in benefit payments, with this reason accounting for about 10 per cent of all crisis grant applications in 2016-17.

Freeman repeated calls for the roll-out of the new Universal Credit benefit to be halted as she pledged the Scottish Government would “continue to do all we can to support hard-pressed families and individuals who are struggling to make ends meet”.

She said: “This year we can now see clearly the impact of the UK Government’s harsh welfare cuts and a system that is broken – with about 10 per cent of crisis funding being needed to cope with the severe impact of benefit delays. We have repeatedly warned that the UK Government’s chaotic roll-out of Universal Credit, particularly the unreasonable six-week wait for first payment, is having an adverse impact on people.

“Let me repeat again our urgent call for the UK Government to listen to the real-life impact of their policies and immediately halt its roll-out, or risk pushing more households into hardship. It is not acceptable in 2017 that people find themselves in these situations through no fault of their own.”

Adam Lang, head of communications and policy at housing charity Shelter Scotland, said: “These funds provide a vital lifeline of support for many struggling households but today’s figures are yet another sign of the human cost to Scotland’s housing crisis." He said the increase in applications for crisis grants was "21,560 more households than last year needing help to keep a roof over their heads".

He added: “Even more worrying is the 46 per cent increase in the recorded reason for applying for a crisis grant as being ‘emergency – nowhere to stay and may resort to rough sleeping’. We know that high housing costs combined with low income and stagnant wages is pushing more and more households into poverty and putting them at greater risk of homelessness.”