One in seven Scots children live in homes where no one works - Scottish Daily Record

SHOCKING new figures yesterday revealed the true scale of the jobless crisis.

One in seven Scottish children – 145,000 kids – are growing up in a home where nobody works.

And one in five Scots households have no working adults.

The grim figures were revealed by the Office of National Statistics.

Opposition politicians last night warned action must be taken to avoid generations of families on the dole.

Shadow Scotland Office Minister Willie Bain said the figures were a "damning indictment" of the UK and Scottish Governments.

He added: "Families are struggling with falling real wages but soaring energy bills, yet feel they are not getting the support they need from the Government."

There are now 367,000 homes where nobody works in Scotland – 14,000 more than last year.

In contrast, the UK saw the number of workless households drop for the second year. There are now 3.7million (17.9 per cent), down from 3.85million in 2011.

But a Scottish Government spokeswoman defended their record of getting people into work.

She pointed out the percentage of households where all the adults were working was higher in Scotland than the UK.

She added: "Unemployment is falling and employment rising.

"Scotland has a lower unemployment rate and higher employment rate than the UK as a whole.

"But more needs to be done. We need the UK Government to take action with direct capital spending on shovel-ready projects to promote growth and new jobs."

Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: "We need to start making work pay and not having a situation where a family on benefits are raking in more than the people next door who go to work each morning."

Another major study revealed that Scots are increasingly dogged by money worries.

Only 44 per cent feel positive about their finances, and 28 per cent of single-parent families are struggling to cope.

Many have little to fall back on, with 12 per cent of households having less than £1000 in savings.

And more than half (56 per cent) of households in rented homes have no savings at all.

The Scottish Household Survey also shows 97 per cent of adults are white, with 80 per cent of them Scots. Asian (two per cent) is the biggest ethnic minority. A third of households have only one person.