FORMER local MP, Gordon Brown, has written to the Minister for Work and Social Security demanding that Fife families be excluded from Universal Credit, the controversial Government benefit leaving thousands struggling to make ends meet.

Under current proposals Universal Credit is to be introduced into the Cowdenbeath- Lochgelly area during December – just days before Christmas.

Pilot schemes have already yielded massive rent arrears, huge family debts and made many families far worse off than they are under current benefits - despite promises things would work out differently.

Former Prime Minister and local MP Mr Brown, who is Patron of the Cottage Family Centre, which handles the financial and other challenges faced by families of 800 children in the area, says the universal credit would hit Fife at the worst possible time, creating “confusion, complexity and chaos.”

And he warns it could leave hundreds without the vital finance they need to tide them over the festive period.

Currently there is a five-day delay in registering and then a six-week gap in payments and he has decided to contact David Gauke, the Minister responsible for UC.

Mr Brown told the Times: “What a terrible Christmas present to give the people of Central Fife.

"It is simply unfair and vindictive to bring Universal Credit to the area just before Christmas when we know the immense suffering its introduction is causing elsewhere.

“To go ahead with a pre-arranged plan when there is already chaos in its introduction and to go ahead just because Fife is next in line to be targeted for Universal Credit is just wrong.

"I m backing up what MSP Alex Rowley and MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, Lesley Laird, have already warned about.

"Food banks have had to be created because of already existing poverty I suspect that if Universal Credit goes ahead there will be a demand for even more relief this Christmas.

“This Government knows the damage that has been done and they should now halt the introduction of the next wave of the universal credit programme.”

*Gordon Brown examines poverty and what must be done to alleviate it - as well as his 32 years as MP for this area - in his new book My Life, Our Times.

The book is officially published on Thursday, November 9 and to mark the occasion Mr Brown will be on stage in Kirkcaldy on Friday, November 10 at the Adam Smith Theatre with comedian and impressionist Rory Bremner.

Tickets are just £5, with proceeds going to the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory, the Cottage Family Centre and Fife Cultural Trust.