SCOTTISH Labour has launched plans to bring indebted families “back from the brink” in the run-up to its annual conference in Glasgow this weekend. 

The party has proposed measures to increase minimum protected earnings and broaden the mental health moratorium on debt recovery, where Scottish law lags behind that of England and Wales, as well as cutting the 10 per cent surcharge added to public debt such as council tax.

Pointing to a recent Mental Health Foundation survey which found that one in three people north of the border have been forced to borrow money amid the cost-of-living crisis, Scottish Labour social justice spokesperson Paul O’Kane said: “Years of economic carnage and soaring bills under the Tories and the SNP have pushed thousands of Scots into a spiral of debt.