Almost 100,000 households in Glasgow 'will suffer' if benefits are not increased in line with inflation, a new report has found.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said people will have even less cash available to spend on the essentials like food and heat.

Three Glasgow areas are among the worst affected with around four in 10 due to be hit with what the charity said will be the biggest real terms cut ever made in a single year.

In Glasgow East, 38% of households would be affected, with almost 17,000 homes on means-tested benefits.

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Glasgow South West also has 38% affected with 16,000 homes on benefits, and North East with 37% and 16,500 on benefits.

The research found more than two-thirds of MPs, or seven in 10, represent areas where at least one-fifth (20%) of working-age families receive means-tested benefits.

The charity said MPs of all parties should be challenging the Government to commit to its previous position of an inflation-linked rise.

The other Glasgow areas had a higher than-average number of households affected.

North West had 29%, Glasgow South 26%, Glasgow Central 24%, and Glasgow North the lowest in the city at 20%.

The difference between most Glasgow areas and those of senior UK cabinet ministers is stark.

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In Liz Truss’ South West Norfolk constituency, 21% of working-age families are affected.

She has 5439 universal credit claimants, compared to Glasgow East with 16,942.

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s Spelthorne constituency has fewer than one in five families, at 18%, affected. He has 4995 universal credit claimants.

Home secretary Suella Braverman, in Fareham, has just 13% of working-age families affected and has 3224 people claiming Universal Credit, less than half of the lowest area in Glasgow.

While Jacob-Rees Mogg, business secretary, who said there is not enough money to give public sector workers a pay rise in line with inflation, has 17% of families affected and 4265 people on Universal Credit in his North East Somerset seat.

Katie Schmuecker, JRF principal policy advisor, said: “We know millions of families have already gone without the essentials this year, missing meals, not cooking hot food or having hot showers.  

“We know people have gone into arrears on their bills or taking on debt to pay for the basics. 

“It is unconscionable that the Government should be considering cutting their ability to pay for what they need. 

“The Government must realise how catastrophic it would be to refuse to respect their own party’s pledge to make sure the value of benefits keeps up with prices.”   

David Linden, Glasgow East SNP MP, said: “Yet again we see the Westminster system punishing the most vulnerable Scots while the rich get richer under the Tories’ austerity economics in another move that signals why Scotland desperately needs independence.

“The findings from the JRF show the horrible extent of the callous actions of the Conservatives, who amidst a brutal cost-of-living crisis, are set to impose the largest permanent benefits cut ever made in a single year.”

Pam Duncan-Glancy, Glasgow MSP and Scottish Labour, Social Security spokesperson, said: This damning analysis lays bare the damage the shameful plans would do in Glasgow.

“Thousands of people already struggling with the cost of living crisis will be robbed of lifeline support if these real-terms cuts go ahead.

“We need a General Election and a Labour government so we can get this morally bankrupt Tory government out of office and put an end to the years of misery they’ve caused.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “The Secretary of State commences her statutory annual review of benefits and State Pensions from late October using the most recent prices and earnings indices available.

“We are committed to looking after the most vulnerable which is why we’ve delivered at least £1,200 of support to families this winter while also saving households an average of £1,000 a year through our Energy Price Guarantee. This support is on top of the annual working-age benefits bill which is over £87 billion.”