South Lanarkshire pensioners have been "betrayed" by the scrapping of the pensions triple lock.
Over a quarter of residents in the region will be affected by the proposed change, which will be in effect for a year.
The UK Government - which previously made a manifesto promise that they would not alter the triple lock - says it has been forced into the move because distortions to wages during Covd-19 mean pensioners would have received a rise of as much as eight percent- an extra £3 billion - while many workers are dealing with job losses, salary cuts and pay freezes during the pandemic.
It has instead tried to alter the state pension so that it will rise by the highest out of 2.5 per cent and inflation next year, instead of earnings growth which is estimated to be at around eight per cent.
The move has sparked fury among campaigners, who claim that poorer pensioners will be hit the hardest by the changes, and the House of Lords have already blocked the proposal, and voted to send it back to the House o Commons.
A total of 28,955 people in South Lanarkshire will be affected, making up 26 per cent of the total population for the area. They'll be losing out on an average of £520 next year.
Rutherglen MSP Clare Haughey has slammed the proposal.
She said: "Under Westminster control, Scotland’s pensioner’s already have among the least generous pensions in north west Europe – and now the Tories are making the situation even worse.
"As the details of Rishi Sunak’s budget continues to come to light, there can be no doubt that he has betrayed South Lanarkshire pensioners. Despite the shockingly low existing state pension level, the Chancellor thinks it’s wise to make matters even worse by scrapping the triple lock and freezing the benefits older people rely on. It defies logic.
"After a decade of UK Government austerity, millions of pensioners across the UK are now living in poverty – and things are set to get even tougher under this Tory government."
Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey said: "As we have sought to protect lives, so we sought to protect livelihoods and to mitigate the worst impacts we introduced £407bn package of support including the furlough and self-employment schemes to support incomes.
"Nevertheless last year we saw earnings fall by one percentage point. In response we legislated to set aside the earnings link allowing me to award an uprating of 2.5 per cent as this was higher than inflation. If we had not done this state pension would have been frozen."
"This year as restrictions have lifted - and we experienced an irregular statistical spike in earnings over the uprating review period - I am clear that another one-year adjustment is needed."
Ms Coffey added that the move: "will also ensure that as we are having to make difficult decisions elsewhere across public spending, including freezing public sector pay, pensioners are not unfairly benefitting from a statistical anomaly."
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