If you want to scare the natives good and proper, tell them another government initiative will be delivered by dint of a new computer programme.

Political history is littered with the corpses of bright new initiatives, from health service and police hardware which doesn’t talk to any of its cousins, through myriad MoD failures.

But if you want to examine a programme which has caused maximum distress to individuals and families alike, look no further than the deeply flawed roll-out of Universal Credit.

Billed as a brave new world of streamlined benefits that would always ensure work paid better than unemployment, it has already caused widespread misery throughout the areas where it has been rolled out in full. And now Argyll and Bute will join that not at all happy band.

There have been a number of surveys into the impact of UC from the Child Poverty Action Group and the Trussell Trust which is the largest provider of food banks.

It speaks volumes for the kind place Britain has become that food banks – once the court of last resort for a minority of desperate people – are now an urgent necessity for thousands of people who are in poorly paid work, and whose top-up benefits have been cut and often delayed.

Iain Duncan Smith, architect of this shambles, didn’t get around to mentioning that as well as mounting delivery problems, there were actual benefit cuts hidden in the process.

According to the CPAG, working families lose an average £930 a year from cuts to tax credits and another £420 from cuts to UC.

Most iniquitously, there have been cuts to disability benefits. So much for looking after the “just about managing”. And so much for encouraging independence amongst those who have mobility problems and other health issues.

Tens of thousands of disabled people UK wide have had their access to adapted vehicles under the Motability scheme removed.

People who are desperate to make work pay, contribute to the economy, and use their talents but are driven back into their homes.

So what will be the impact on our own local food bank? Well the Trussell Trust reported that where the scheme had been fully rolled out there was an average increase of 52 per cent in food bank use.

This is partly due to the fact that people are having to wait for weeks for their first payment, often getting into debt problems with their housing, as well as trying to keep the rest of the domestic show on the road. And when they asked for support, the most common help offered was a food bank voucher.

The most dispiriting statistic of all was that only eight per cent were able to say that the Universal Credit payment covered their basic cost of living, whilst that dropped to five per cent where a disabled person was involved.

Some social security is now devolved to the Scottish Government, which gives some flexibility over things like carers’ allowance and personal independence payments.

But the core Universal Credit, encompassing the basic benefits from Jobseekers Allowance and Working Tax Credits to child and housing benefits, remain reserved to Westminster.

It would be nice to think the more places are subjected to the UC rollout, the better the service would become. But, frankly, the breath is not being held.