Controversial housing benefit cuts have seen a 400% rise in families affected in the north of Scotland since November.
The UK Government’s new benefit cap lowered the amount of support to between £257.69 and £384.62 a week.
Analysis from the Scottish Greens has shown a 404% rise in Aberdeen, 487% in Aberdeenshire, 360% in the Highlands and 386% in Moray.
Scottish Green social security spokeswoman Alison Johnstone has urged the Scottish Government to mitigate the cuts, which costs the average family £2,000 a year, to top up benefits in the same way it did for the bedroom tax at a cost of £2million a year.
Ms Johnstone said: “Seven years into the Tories’ cruel agenda of cuts, we now see the terrible impact on children in our communities.
“By reducing the social security support available, while ignoring rising housing costs, the UK Government has pushed an additional 11,000 children into potential poverty and homelessness.”
Scottish Social Security Minister Jeane Freeman argued the UK Government should not be “let off the hook” for its damaging policy.
She said: “It is completely unacceptable the UK Government continues to make its cuts on the back of the poorest, with those hardest hit being low income families and children and disabled people.”
“We have consistently called on the UK Government to end this ideologically driven assault on those least able to cope.”
However, a DWP spokeswoman claimed the policy had helped 970 parents move back into work.
She said: “The benefit cap restores balance, making the system fairer to the taxpayer, and provides a financial incentive to move into work for those who can.
Meanwhile, dozens of Scottish charities have banded together to call on the UK Government to stop the roll-out of the Universal Credit benefit system in Scotland before it can “harm any more people”.
The 24 charities, including Citizens Advice Scotland, Oxfam Scotland, Disability Agenda Scotland and the Poverty Alliance, claim the “flawed” policy is leaving thousands of people struggling to make ends meet.
Universal Credit replaces six benefits with one single payment and is aimed at making the system easier to use, but has faced criticism since trials began.
The charities have called on the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to “halt and fix” the system, which they praised as a “good idea” in principle, before an accelerated roll-out across the country set for October.
