THE numbers claiming unemployment benefits has doubled in Scotland during the Covid lockdown.
At least one in five Scots werer either jobless or on furlough, as the original job retention scheme ended today (Saturday).
The number of unemployment benefit claimants has nearly trebled in some part of Scotland with some of Scotland's most affluent areas with historically lower levels of deprivation seeing some of the biggest rises in claiming either Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) or Universal Credit (UC).
The numbers across Scotland claiming benefits have soared from 111,280 in November to 222,020 in October.
But there are concerns there are thousands more who are out of work who are not able to claim.
Huge rises in claimants have also been found in more affluent local authorities highly sought after for local schools, including East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire.
Clackmannshire has the second highest rise in claimants with a 159% rise over the 11 months, followed by East Renfrewshire (149%), Perth and Kinross (146%) and East Dunbartonshire (140%).
The shallowest rise has come in one of the most deprived local authority areas, Inverclyde, where the number of claimants has risen from 2,235 to 3,185 (43%), followed by North Ayrshire (59%) and Dundee City (65%).
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