Lifeline services for vulnerable and isolated people are under threat after vital groups miss out on more than £1m of funding.

The future of some centres hangs in the balance after Glasgow City Council allocated almost 50 per cent less funding than groups applied for.

Some facilities which help many lonely, elderly and disabled people are being forced to close and make staff redundant.

Groups across the city who applied to the local authority's Integrated Grants Fund (IGF) were left astounded after their funding requests were cut by as much as 70 per cent.

Of the 24 applicants who asked for cash, only 12 received funding.

Those who were recommended for grants applied for a total of £2,587,417 between this year and 2017/18, however they were recommended to receive £1,395,000.

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Some facilities will be forced to close, while others are due to make staff redundant in a bid to manage the strain of the impending cuts.

The Glasgow Old People's Welfare Association (GOPWA), which applied for more than £500,000 in funding, have been recommended to receive just £244,000.

The charity has also been advised they must "seek to deliver services into other parts of the city" as part of the conditions of their grant, despite receiving less cash than they need.

Charity bosses have already decided they will have to close both the Donald Dewar centre and their Gatehouse facility in Temple to cope, leaving dozens of elderly people without facilities.

Staff and relatives have warned the impact of their closures will be "detrimental" to their communities.

Around two dozen staff are understood to have been made redundant at bath centres, which are set to shut their doors on September 31.

The facilities run by GOPWA provide a safe place for elderly people, who are often alone and isolated, to socialise, chat to their peers and get support if they need it.

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Kelly McCandless, who has worked at the Gatehouse for six years, said she is "devastated" at being made redundant, but her main concern is for the elderly people who will be left with no support.

She said: " This has been here for 26 years. My mum attended, and it was a total lifeline for us. If she hadn't come here, she would have been a vegetable sitting at home on her own.

"The impact of this closure is going to be unbelievable and detrimental. "

Thornliebank's Rainbow centre looks certain to receive a drastic reduction in the amount of funding they get, having applied for £186,000 but recommended to receive around £73,000.

Centre manager Anne Walsh said: "We will need to go to other sources now to make sure our centre stays open.

"We can't cut down any more staff, our options are really limited.

"We have thought about having to charge our members as the council's day centre charges will be stopping October but we don't want to do that. That's an option we don't want to go down. We want to try and help get funding from other sources."

The full extent of the funding cuts were revealed by the local authority at yesterday's Executive Committee, where fierce debate broke out over the management of cash.

Soryia Siddique, Labour councillor for Southside Central, and the council's spokeswoman for citizens and communities defended the decisions after she came under fire from opposition leader Susan Aitken the SNP.

The administration said they have been in discussions with groups since February and officers have been working with those affected to try and find alternative sources of funding, and ways they can deliver their services.

Councillor Siqqiue said: "All applicants have been informed of the total level of funding and the probability that if they were to receive funding it probably wouldn't be the amounts they requested.

"All lunch clubs are to be maintained at their existing level.

"Officers have been meeting with all the organisations who currently receive funding. Discussions include what plans organisations are making to adapt to this changing environment.Although in most cases they are not receiving funding they have applied for, they have been made aware they will have flexibility around how they intend to deliver services using the funding."

She also explained four groups which had previously not been funded by the IGF had been given cash - the Food train based in the North East, the Mel-Milaap Community Centre, the Jamiat Ittihad-ul-Muslimin service and the Senior Centre in Castlemilk.

The SNP said they would not support the funding report, however Councillor Siddique said this would be detrimental to the groups which are happy with their funding agreements.

Susan Aitken: "We have in the past expressed serious concerns that these organisations are being stretched to their limits, are potentially being squeezed out.

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"Our concern is the same which is why we can't support this today.

"We are hearing from long-standing organisations in this city who have an exemplary record of community provision for our city's older people, that they are going to be struggling badly as a result of this.

" This has come as a shock to them.

"It means the impact that some of the groups will be facing will be the closure of facilities, redundancies of staff..."

Councillor Aitken said more information on the impact of the funding levels was needed before approval of the report was granted.

A total of 11 city councillors voted in favour of accepting the recommendations, while five voted against and one abstained.