THE number of people claiming Universal Credit in Dunfermline and West Fife went up this month with a rise of 1.4 per cent.

A total of 9,447 claimed the benefit in August – an increase of 132 compared to the previous month.

Across Fife, there was a 1.5 per cent increase, up 532 to 35,623.

Dunfermline DWP employer adviser Kevin Keir said they were making every effort to get people back into work.

"If you compare the figures, it is certainly not as high an increase as last month but the fact is it is going up," he said. "What I would say is we are doing all we can as an organisation to alleviate all the things that come with the downturn in terms of jobs on offer through the DWP.

"Work coaches will be taken on to deal with the extra numbers.

"Locally, we are lucky. We have Mowi, we have got Amazon and the care sector within Fife – there are still vacancies there. The retail sector is still producing jobs as well."

Mr Keir added that, in addition to the frontline work coaches being taken on to support people looking for work, a £2 billion Kickstart Scheme was set to provide high-quality, six-month placements from Autumn this year.

This will see funding available for each six-month job placement to cover 100 per cent of the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week. The scheme will be focused on supporting young people who are on Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment.