Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - The great documented rise in food banks across Scotland have been seen as one of the results of wide scale welfare reforms from the UK government that have been implemented over the last few years since 2010.
The impact of these reforms has been most keenly felt by those in society who need the most help – whether it be those receiving incapacity benefits, tax credits, child benefit or disability living allowance.
The Scottish Parliament's Welfare Reform committee have calculated figures which explain how much the average working age adult will lose out each year once the reforms come into full effect.
Across my constituency of Banffshire and Buchan Coast, the loss per working age adult averages out at around £400 per year. In Banff and district, the figure hits £400, but in Fraserburgh it goes up to £420, with Peterhead North and Rattray coming in at £410.
Across Scotland as a whole, more than £1.6bn a year will be taken out of the Scottish economy – averaging to around £460 a year for every adult of working age.
The committee’s report on the local impact also found a clear correlation between the extent of deprivation and the scale of financial loss. The most deprived areas are hit the hardest.
The reforms to incapacity benefits are resulting in the biggest financial losses, particularly in the most disadvantaged communities. Some people are also feeling the hit from several elements of the reforms. For example, incapacity claimants can lose out because of the reforms to disability living allowance and may lose from reforms to Housing benefit if they live in the private rented sector or if they have grown up children still living at home.
Due to their not being a big surge into employment, a key effect of the welfare reforms will be to widen the gaps in income between communities.
This comes at a time when the majority of Scottish households are already feeling the pinch with the recession not long behind them, debts still looming, and low interest rates discouraging savers.
Among the top 10 most distressed constituencies was the Banffshire and Buchan Coast.
The Which? report found that 36 per cent of households, amounting to 800,000 across the country, were feeling financially squeezed. Just a quarter (24 per cent) said they were living comfortably on their incomes.
Head of Which? public affairs for Scotland, Gordon MacRae, pointed out some of the reasons - that the cost of essentials remains high and levels of worry about household debt and savings are prevalent, with businesses, especially in banking and energy, needing to do a lot more to win back customer’s trust.
But the same study found that around three in 10 people who are not yet retired are not contributing to a pension and have no plans to do so. Nearly two thirds say they don’t know how much they will need to save to live comfortably in retirement.
So while there are responsibilities on everyone to make the best of what they have, certain sections of society are facing tough times every day.
And what should be noted is that the financial burden of these welfare reforms is being borne by public sector budgets in Scotland, so even if there were good intentions behind the want for reform, we will all suffer as other public services may need to be cut or slimmed down. And that’s a change we could do without.
