Pensioners across West Dunbartonshire could be out of pocket by £7000 per year, according to the area’s MP.
Martin Docherty-Hughes, of the SNP, has blasted UK Government cuts to pension credit eligibility which came into force last week.
The changes mean that pensioners with a partner of working age will not be able to make a claim for financial help through pension credit and housing benefit.
Instead, people will be forced to claim the new Universal Credit.
With charity Age Scotland saying figures show thousands of older couples being worse off to the tune of £140.40 per week as a result of the benefit reform.
The charity, which represents older people, has also warned that the UK government’s changes to benefit entitlement will have a devastating impact on some of the poorest older residents in West Dunbartonshire and across Scotland.
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The cut comes as pensioner poverty rises – now at its worse since 2008 – and after 300,000 more pensioners were driven into poverty between 2014 and 2017 - the first sustained increase in pensioner poverty for 20 years, according to the SNP MP.
The SNP has backed calls by Age Scotland for the UK government’s changes to pension credit to be reversed and brought back to the House of Commons for MPs to look at again.
Martin Docherty-Hughes said: “The Tories should be ashamed of the way they’re treating older people – unfairly punishing the poorest pensioners in West Dunbartonshire and across the country simply for having a younger partner.
“Pension credit offers vital financial support to older people in need, but thousands people of pension age now face missing out on up to £7000 per year due to these cuts introduced by the UK government.
“It beggars belief that the Tories have chosen to implement these cuts at a time when pensioner poverty is on the rise – now at its highest level for over 10 years.
“Not content with presiding over the lowest state pension in the developed world, the UK government is also giving the green light to scrapping free TV licences for the over-75s and pressing ahead with unfair changes to the state pension age for 1950s-born WASPI women.
“It’s clearer than ever that the Tory UK government cannot be trusted to look after Scotland’s pensioners.”
Age Scotland’s chief executive Brian Sloan said: “These changes will have a devastating impact on the lives of some of the poorest pensioners in Scotland.
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“Around one in six pensioners living in Scotland are in poverty and this retrograde move will do nothing to improve this.
“It is vital that older people ensure that they claim everything they are entitled to.
“The Age Scotland helpline 0800 12 44 222 offers free benefit and entitlement checks and can support older people with pension credit claims.”
A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “This change was voted on by parliament in 2012 and means, for new claims from May 15, only pensioners can claim pension credit.
“If one partner is of working age we believe it’s fair that the same incentives to work and save for retirement apply as they do for other people of the same age.
“We have updated online guidance and written to all eligible mixed age couples to make them aware of the changes, which won’t affect them unless their circumstances change.”
