A SCOTS children's charity has warned of growing levels of poverty due to the coronavirus crisis as it revealed demand for their emergency cash grants has risen more than ten-fold in a year.

The Aberlour charity reveals a level of poverty that is "fundamental and absolute" with a majority of families requesting emergency cash to buy food, utilities and clothing.

Aberlour said it has helped more than 2,000 families from its Urgent Assistance Fund since March, providing cash for the “basic essentials that are needed to survive”.

Between March and August this year the charity gave out over £370,000 in emergency cash grants, with demand for the fund increasing by over 1000 per cent based on the same time period last year, while the value of grants given out increased by 52%.

In total 3264 children were supported by the fund.

READ MORE: Some of Scotland's poorest households face income crisis due to Universal Credit cut

In all, 6 in 10 families who applied to the fund could not afford to feed their children.

SallyAnn Kelly, chief executive of Aberlour, said: “When the lockdown started, we feared that it would have a devastating impact on families living in or on the edge of poverty.

“This has sadly proved to be the case."

Between March 19 – shortly before Scotland went into lockdown – and July 20 it received 1,511 applications for help, compared with just 134 in the same period of 2019.

Analysis of the cash donations reveals that applications for funding came from 31 of the 32 local authorities across Scotland from families that were desperate for help, with almost half of applications (46.6%) coming from the Glasgow area.

The only local authority area with no applications during the period of the study was Aberdeenshire, with the report noting this is “one of the local authority areas with the lowest levels of child poverty in Scotland”.

The Herald:

Almost all of the applications received were for essentials from families who were unable to afford to feed their children (60%), unable to afford to keep their homes warm (50%), and who couldn’t afford to clothe their children adequately (29%).

The report also found that 71% of the applications were made by single parents, despite single parent families only making up 25% of the population in Scotland.

The report said: “It is striking that these requests are for items of basic subsistence, indicative of levels of poverty we would consider more absolute than relative.

“Before receiving money from Aberlour’s Urgent Assistance Fund, families report being unable to feed their children adequately, having children sleeping on floors, having mattresses with springs poking out hurting children and having clothes that are too small.

“Families were relieved and grateful for Aberlour’s help.”

Aberlour found the number one reason for families requiring emergency cash was because of parental mental health issues (17% of families), which the report said showed the hugely negative impact the pandemic is having on people’s mental health.

Aberlour has also received 432 applications for help with children’s clothing, 321 for bedding and 143 for baby supplies.

Report author Professor Morag Treanor from the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) at Heriot-Watt University said: “What is striking here is that all of the applications made to the Urgent Assistance Fund were for basic essentials that are needed to survive.

“This demonstrates that there is a level of need across families in Scotland that is really quite fundamental and absolute, and on a higher scale than we have seen for some time.”

Sue, a mother-of-six from Falkirk, turned to Aberlour after her family struggled with bills when her husband was furloughed during lockdown.

She said: “I was embarrassed about what people would think when I started using the food bank, and on top of that with the whole family at home and a new baby to keep warm our utility bills were much bigger than before.

“I just felt hopeless. The help we got was absolutely fantastic. I can’t think how I would have done it without Aberlour.”

The report said help was needed because of “debilitating changes to family situations as a result of Covid-19”.

Some families were not eligible for the furlough scheme when lockdown started and lost their jobs as result.

Others were “told, incorrectly, that they were not entitled to furlough payment and spent several weeks with no income until the situation was rectified”.

Some of those who were self-employed did not meet the criteria for receiving Government help.

While some families applied for Universal Credit, this has a five-week waiting time for money to be paid out.

Ms Kelly added: “While our services have continued to support children and families throughout Scotland, and our supporters have donated magnificent sums to our Urgent Assistance Fund, we need to continue to raise more money to sustain our vital work and reach more families at risk of falling through the cracks.”

The charity has now launched its Surviving Winter Appeal to raise funds to help with tackling poverty and inequality in Scotland.