government

Wolverhampton City Council is to cut 2,000 jobs, it has revealed.

The number represents one in every five people it employs, but the local authority says it has to make this tough decision due to the coalition's cut to its grant.

Although local government can raise money directly through council tax, the central grant from Westminster forms the majority of its income.

Andrew Johnson, cabinet member for resources, said: "We have lost a huge proportion of the main source of our income, which is the grant from the government. That's why we have to make these job cuts.

The government has announced a reduction in the support available for those affected by its housing benefit cuts.

This follows on from reductions in previous years and is likely to mean more hardship for unemployed people.

In the year 2013-14, the coalition made £180 million available to councils through the Discretionary Housing Fund, which replaced the far bigger Social Fund.

Unemployment has shown a big fall in the last three months and now stands at 7.1% of the working population.

But coverage of the issue has focused on the likely result of this fall on interest rates.

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, has said he will not raise interest rates, which have been stuck at 0.5% since 2009, until unemployment drops to 7%.

It is now looking likely that this will be very soon, and newspapers and news websites have covered this issue obsessively, being concerned about its effect on house prices and the cost of business borrowing.

The government has announced that universal credit advice will now be made available on TV red buttons.

Universal credit is the coalition's flagship welfare policy, and will roll six separate benefits together into one single payment.

It will be paid monthly rather than fortnightly to claimants, leading to fears that many will struggle to budget and that those who used to get housing benefit paid direct to landlords may fall into arrears.