Welfare

IDS to face MPs to account for his Universal Credit failings

Mon, 09/12/2013 - 13:05 -- nick

Under-fire Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith will finally face a committee of MPs this afternoon to account for his failures on the Universal Credit system.

In advance of this he gave an interview to The Financial Times in which he said he took "complete responsibility ... from start to finish" for the issues affecting the scheme.

Food emergency in UK as poverty and benefit cuts hit home

Wed, 04/12/2013 - 17:40 -- nick

Food poverty has grown in the UK to a point of national health emergency - and benefit cuts are to blame.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the scientists and public health experts said the rise in starvation and food bank use bore the hallmarks of a national medical emergency.

In a letter the group points the finger at the government's benefit cuts, citing evidence from the UK's biggest food bank provider the Trussell Trust:

EU hits back at 'nasty' Tory benefit block plan

Wed, 27/11/2013 - 12:58 -- nick

The European Union has criticised the Conservative plan to block EU citizens from receiving UK benefits.

Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor said Britain risked being seen as a "nasty country" because of the plan, which would mean a person needs to be resident in the UK for three months before they were entitled to benefits.

From 1st January people from Bulgaria and Romania will have full workers rights in the whole EU, prompting fears from some that the UK jobs market will struggle to accommodate them.

IDS targets seriously ill for benefit and support cuts

Mon, 25/11/2013 - 12:29 -- nick

Hated Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is to target some of the most seriously ill benefit claimants for cuts.

They include people with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

Smith is proposing to  dump the work-related activity group (WRAG), which provides support including training and interview practice to those who are deemed fit-to-work with help.

550,000 people are in this group, and half have got back into work within three years despite their issues, but this is considered insufficient.

Gove calls UK benefits 'generous' as EU citizens denied access

Mon, 25/11/2013 - 11:49 -- nick

Education Secretary Michael Gove has called the British benefits system "generous" while denying EU citizens access to it.

Speaking on Sunday's Andrew Marr Show on BBC1, Gove defended David Cameron's stance, which will extend the qualifying period for European people from three months to one year.

Gove said Mr Cameron had "struck exactly the right note on migration, which is to celebrate the achievements of the people who've come here, to recognise migration has to work for people who are already here - from whatever background".

Higher benefits don't demotivate jobseekers - study

Mon, 18/11/2013 - 13:31 -- nick

Countries that pay their unemployed people higher benefits do not see a rise in a lack of motivation, a study has found.

Edinburgh University researchers examined 28 European countries in detail and showed that there was no connection between the level of benefit payments and jobseekers' dissatisfaction with being unemployed.

Those in Luxembourg and Finland were in the highest-income quarter of claimants but in the bottom quarter for life satisfaction, while those in Poland and Romania were among the poorest but were some of the least affected.

Government launches consultation on sanctions - we want your views

Mon, 18/11/2013 - 11:16 -- nick

The government wants your views on the way it hands out sanctions within its Work Programme and similar schemes.

It has appointed Matthew Oakley as an independent reviewer to find out what those affected think of the issue.

Unsurprisingly, Oakley is a supporter of the Work Programme; in a Guardian article he wrote in March about the Cait Reilly/Poundland case he said:

Unemployed claimants go missing from today's figures - sanctions to blame?

Wed, 13/11/2013 - 14:30 -- nick

Last week the DWP finally released its figures for sanctions, and these showed a huge rise in people being thrown off benefits in the last year to 870,000, an average of more than 72,000 each month.

These are real people having their meagre incomes removed often for the most spurious reasons and disappearing from view.

45% rise in sanctions leaves more jobseekers destitute

Wed, 06/11/2013 - 13:32 -- nick

A big rise in the number of sanction referrals handed out by jobcentres and other advisors means more jobseekers have moved into destitution.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has today released figures for sanctions - the act of removing benefits for a perceived offence - showing more have had money removed than ever before.

In 2011 - itself a record year - 1.34 million sanctions were handed out.

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