Scots needed emergency grants totalling more than £2m to cover basic living costs in the final three months of 2017.

Councils handed out crisis grants worth £2,235,562 to 23,150 households - with 9% more people receiving help compared with a year ago.

The grants are distributed as part of the Scottish Welfare Fund to pay for food and heating.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Trussell Trust revealed it handed out a record 170,625 emergency food parcels in Scotland in 2017-18.

The Scottish Government said UK Government welfare cuts were to blame for the increasing number of people needing help.

Social Security Minister Jeane Freeman said: "It is unacceptable that people find themselves in these situations through no fault of their own.

"Under UK Government welfare cuts, money is being taken from the pockets of low income families, pushing them into crisis, debt and poverty. "

Since the fund was set up in April 2013, almost £156m has been given out to poorer Scots, with 285,720 individual households benefiting.

About a third of those who received help in the last three months of 2017 were families with children, while about one in eight crisis grants were needed because of delays in benefits payments.

The fund has a budget of £34.4m for 2017-18, with 69% of the cash spent by the end of December - three quarters of the way through the financial year.

Six councils have spent more than three quarters of the funds for the year, with East Dunbartonshire having used up 88% of its cash, while both Inverclyde and North Lanarkshire had spent 82%.