More than 50 people were hit with Job Centre sanctions every day across Fife and Tayside up to the turn of the year.
Department of Work and Pensions figures, analysed by The Courier, reveal the scale of the punishments imposed on those who are judged to be refusing to work.
Wellgate House in Dundee alone made 7,316 decisions to apply “adverse” sanctions between October 22 2012 and the final day of last year.
That was the 20th highest number of sanctions of the 1196 UK benefits offices during the same period.
The DWP insists it only hands out punishments as a “last resort” and the number of those having their money stopped is decreasing.
However, it was reported last week that a Fife man was sanctioned after missing a Jobcentre appointment, which he had missed because he was in hospital recovering from emergency surgery after a major heart attack.
The Policy Institute think-tank has claimed levels could double with the introduction of the Universal Credit system.
SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said: “This is yet further heartbreaking evidence of the impact the UK Government’s cruel, indefensible sanctions regime is having on people in Scotland.
“The idea that the Tory response to a man recovering from a major heart attack is to impose these heartless sanctions on him and take away the support he relies on is simply staggering,” he said.
“And the idea that the imposition of these cruel, punitive sanctions could in fact double as the Tories’ Universal Credit is rolled out is deeply worrying and shows the need for urgent action.”
Sanctions can be issued for a variety of reasons, including turning down employment or voluntarily quitting a job.
Scottish Conservative welfare reform spokesman John Lamont insisted the UK Government’s approach was the correct way of getting people back into employment.
He said: “It’s absolutely right that if people aren’t making an attempt to find work despite being fit and able, their benefits should be reduced.
“This is a policy supported by the majority of people in Scotland and south of the border.”
A DWP spokesman added: “The number of sanctions in Scotland is falling as more claimants fulfil their commitments to look for work. They are only used as a last resort for a tiny minority who refuse to take up the support on offer.”