At a lunch club for pensioners in Crieff, Perthshire, run by the Royal Voluntary Service, several attendees said times had been made harder by the UK government’s move to restrict payments.
“It’s a terrible decision to have to make, whether you heat the house or whether you buy food, said Fay Murphy.
“It is pretty shocking and it is getting worse in some areas in Scotland,” she added.
Ms Murphy said the action by the Scottish government was welcome, although she said she was concerned about how that would be funded.
But Geoff Mayne, 84, said he believed the UK decision to restrict the benefit in the first place was “perfectly fair.”
“You were giving money to people who don’t really need it,” he said.
“I can’t help but feel it was the right decision to make sure it went to the people who needed it, but not to everybody. That includes me.”
