Benefits shake-up will leave people 'drowning in debt'

THE "evil" welfare reforms on the horizon will leave people in the Highlands an estimated £1.5 million a year worse off – amid a grim warning that a financial tsunami is on its way.

And Highland councillors have attacked the region’s three Liberal Democrat MPs after they failed to agree to a meeting to discuss the issues facing their constituents until after the new year, three months after the invite.

Senior Lib Dem councillor Alasdair Christie laid into his party colleagues and said trying to confirm a suitable date with John Thurso, Danny Alexander and Charles Kennedy was "like trying to fix jelly onto the wall".

The trio have now agreed to meet a cross-party working group of councillors for behind-closed-doors talks in Inverness on January 25, when some of the sweeping benefits changes planned by the UK Government are only months away.

It comes after a heated debate about the stark situation facing benefits claimants during the finance, housing and resources committee meeting in Inverness on Wednesday.

The changes, which are the biggest since the 1940s, will be phased in from next year and will first affect anybody of working age who currently receives any type of benefit, including tax credits. Around 5,000 of the 16,000 council house tenants in the Highlands alone will see their benefits slashed.

Committee chairman Dave Fallows said an "awful" situation was looming and not enough information had been provided by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government yet.

Mr Christie, manager of the Highlands’s busiest Citizens Advice Bureau in Inverness, said his party’s participation in the shake-up was a "national disgrace" and claimed people could drown in a sea of debt by having their benefits cut.

"There is a tsunami which is going to come and sink some people," he said.

"This Welfare Reform Act is one of the most evil pieces of legislation that I have ever seen. Benefits are there to help people, they are the safety net for people to help them lead their lives."

Councillor Christie admitted his views could get him in hot water with party bosses.

"Westminster is totally out of step and kilter – maybe one day I will be out of step with my party," he added.

Independent leader Councillor Carolyn Wilson said waiting four months for a meeting was "dreadful".

She added: "The three MPs ought to be ashamed of themselves."

Councillor Margaret Davidson, a former housing and social work committee chairwoman, said it was an "absurd" delay given the seriousness of the issue and the fact all three regularly visited their constituencies.

Mrs Davidson, called for the MPs to resign from their party so the coalition government would disintegrate, which could stop some of the welfare reforms in their tracks.

Joining in the attack, Caithness SNP councillor Alex MacLeod recounted cases of constituents who had slid into depression as a result of the uncertainly of the Lib Dem welfare reforms.

He also highlighted a letter from the Department of Work and Pensions to Job Centres across the UK, which warns that benefit claimants have attempted suicide as a result of the reforms.

Mr MacLeod said: "Lord Thurso’s support for welfare reform has inflicted pain and misery on the people of the Highlands. He should hang his head in shame – his welfare reforms are ruining lives across the far north.

"Even his own councillors are condemning his position, but real folk don’t care that these reforms are tearing the Lib Dems apart – these reforms are tearing our society apart."

Dawson Lamont, the council’s head of exchequer and revenues, told councillors that it had been forecasted about £1.5 million would be cut from the income of Highland benefits claimants when the "juggernaut" of reform was implemented.

A spokesman for all three MPs said: "This is an issue of utmost importance to the Highlands’ three MPs and they are all very keen to organise a discussion at the earliest possible opportunity.

"Unfortunately, due to the conflicting demands on each of their, and the council’s diaries, it hasn’t been possible to find a date before January 25."

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