Changes to housing benefit payments that come into effect this month could lead to a housing crisis, it has been claimed.
Shadow Scotland secretary Margaret Curran said thousands of homes across the country will become unaffordable to people on benefits because of a decision by the Conservative-led coalition to cap housing benefit payments.
She is now demanding an urgent meeting with Scottish secretary Michael Moore to discuss the issue.
Figures released by the Chartered Institute of Housing show that across the UK around 800,000 homes will become off limits to those who rely on housing benefit to pay their rent.
Housing benefit will now only cover the price of rent in the bottom third of the market, rather than the average price of renting a home.
The Scottish Government warned last year the changes will make it harder to meet its targets for reducing homelessness and that as many as 7,500 people aged 25-34 could be forced from their own flats into shared accommodation because of the new limits.
In Dundee and Angus, people in that age bracket who receive housing benefit for a one-bedroom flat will see their allowance drop from just over £80 a week to just over £54.
In Fife, the drop will be £29 as the allowance for a one-bedroom flat falls from £84.23 to £55.38.
Those in Perth and Kinross will suffer even more as it is one of the areas where allowances will drop from £88 by £33.
Ms Curran said that in Glasgow there will be 1,000 more benefit recipients than there are properties that can be rented with the government’s reduced housing subsidy.
”No family living in 21st-century Scotland should be forced to choose between putting food on the table or their paying rent,” she said.
”Of course there is a case for benefit reform to ensure support goes to those most in need, but the government has got to get the detail right otherwise it will simply clobber the poorest and put hard-pressed Scots on the street.”
She added: ”It is time for the Tory-led government to admit that it got it wrong and go back to the drawing board.”
The Scottish Government has set a target to ensure every unintentionally homeless adult in Scotland has a right to a home by the end of this year.
Dundee City council is one of the few local authority prepared for when the new laws which will give the unintentionally homeless more rights come into force.