Between July and September 2014 welfare benefits claimed by residents were withheld 225 times, compared to 213 the previous quarter.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) threatened a further 153 people with sanctions during this period.

The statistics were published after the Clydebank Post revealed in January that decisions to penalise Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants had more than doubled from 598 to 1,215 between June 2012 and June 2014.

Clydebank Waterfront councillor Marie McNair has campaigned against the benefit sanctioning programme, which regularly results in poor people losing their benefits for periods of up to 13 weeks.

She said: “I am absolutely disgusted with this uncaring political establishment who have imposed this misery on my constituents.

“It can never be right that society turns its back on those in greatest need. How can leaving people with absolutely no money for weeks on end be good for anything.

“I call on the incoming government to immediately scrap sanctions and end this misery being inflicted on the poor, disabled and lone parents.

“The people making these decisions wouldn’t know poverty if it bit them on the nose. They should be ashamed.” In total, between October 2013 and September 2014, 1,048 sanctions were dealt to 950 people.

This is a decrease from the previous year, when 1,148 penal measures were dished out to 1,045 claimants.

However, between October 2011 and September 2012 a much lesser amount of sanctions were approved. In that period 712 sanctions were implemented against 660 residents of Clydebank.

Over these three years, about 80 per cent of the sanctions were issued to men.

Young men aged between 18 and 24 receive the most punishments of all other age groups.

The figures are a result of the UK Government’s reformation of the welfare system which came into effect in December 2012.

The legislation saw a series of regulations and punishments introduced for claimants of JSA and Employment Support Allowance (ESA).

The highest sanction will see Jobseeker’s Allowance withdrawn for 13 weeks when, for example, an individual leaves a job voluntarily. This rises to 26 weeks for a second “failure” and 156 weeks for a third failure to comply with the regulations.

An intermediate sanction for failures such as not actively seeking a job, or being available for work can also be dished out. In this instance, a person’s benefit is initially lost for one month.

A lower level sanction, resulting in loss of benefit for failures such as not attending an interview with a Jobcentre adviser are also enforced.

The DWP say that benefits sanctions are a necessary part of the benefits system, but insist they are “used as a last resort” when claimants break rules.

A DWP spokeswoman said: “We have a well established system of hardship payments for benefit claimants who have little or no other resources available to them.”