The Scottish Government said it is doing all it can to help with the cost of living but said the UK Government has most of the powers.

The Glasgow Times challenged the Scottish Government to provide more support for individuals, families and businesses struggling to survive amid the economic crisis.

As part of our Beat the Squeeze series we asked for support on child poverty, council funding and business support.

READ MORE: Beat the Squeeze: We ask government 'What are you going to do about it?'

We also challenged the UK Government under its powers.

The Scottish Government said it is uprating six social security benefits under its control by 6% this year.

It highlighted a £150 cost of living payment which it said “will reach 73% of households to support them at this time of need.”

And a further £10 million is being allocated to continue the Fuel Insecurity Fund into 2022-23.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are doing all we can to ensure people, communities and businesses are given as much support as possible to deal with the rising cost of living. Many of the powers required to tackle these issues, including energy markets, are reserved to the UK Government, but the vital steps we proposed for the Chancellor’s Spring Statement were largely ignored.

“We are committed to supporting our businesses recovery and have provided more than £4.5 billion in support since the beginning of the pandemic, including £1.6 billion in rates relief – the most generous of the UK administrations.

“The Scottish Government is uprating eight Scottish benefits by 6% from 1 April as well as doubling our Scottish Child Payment from £10 per week per eligible child to £20. The Scottish Child Payment will be further increased to £25 by the end of 2022. We are using our powers to help those who need us most in these difficult times and we have called for the UK Government to follow our lead and uprate social security benefits by 6%.

“The extensive measures we have taken come despite the UK Government’s announcement of funding to mitigate the cost of living crisis reducing the resources the Scottish Government expected to have available.”

READ MORE: Beat the Squeeze: UK Government says it's 'committed to ending poverty'

The Scottish Government pointed to a £130 pandemic support Payment which was received by more than half a million households last year.

In additional information in the response it said: “In the next year the Scottish Government will invest over £360 million in social security payments above what is received and continue to provide £120 million through the Scottish Welfare Fund and housing support.

“We are investing £87 million into the Discretionary Housing Payment Programme, offering support to those struggling with housing costs. This includes £68.1 million to mitigate the Bedroom Tax helping over 92,000 households in Scotland to sustain their tenancies.”

It said it is providing an additional £10.9 million which “mitigates against the damaging impact of other UK Government welfare cuts including the benefit cap and changes to the Local Housing Allowance rates”.

And it said it is further increasing investment into discretionary housing payments by £7 million, to provide additional support to those affected by the benefit cap.