TENS of thousands of disabled Scots will be forced to go through “cruel” Tory assessments because the SNP delayed the transfer of social security powers to Holyrood, according to new data from Scottish Labour yesterday.
The party’s figures show that nearly 130,000 working-age Scots currently claiming disability living allowance will have to be assessed for the new personal independence payments after the SNP asked the British government to retain responsibility for some benefits in Scotland until 2020.
Scottish Labour’s social security spokesman Mark Griffin MSP said his party was committed to ending these “cruel and inhumane assessments that have piled misery on vulnerable Scots.”
The new Scottish Parliament looks set to continue a cycle of managerial tinkering while public services face the axe, writes STEPHEN LOW


