Benefits should be increased on a guaranteed basis every year as part of an overhaul to improve the consistency, transparency and accountability of the social security system, the government has been...
The failure to pay benefit claimants the correct level of support was a contributing factor in the National Audit Office giving a qualified opinion on the Department for Work and Pensions’ accounts.
People on benefits face “crushing poverty” if payments are not increased in line with inflation, Kwasi Kwarteng has been told, amid concerns the government could refuse to do so.
The agency administering housing benefit on behalf of the Northern Irish government has had its 2020-21 accounts qualified over “material levels” of fraud and error, according to the...
The level of fraud and error in benefit payments made in Northern Ireland rose again last financial year, leading to a spending watchdog issuing a qualified opinion.
The government will face some tough choices on benefit reforms following record applications, with some aspects of the system already “ripe for reform”, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Fraud and errors related to payments made by the Department for Work and Pensions have reached record highs and are set to grow due to universal credit.
The mass devolution of social security benefits next year represents a “very significant fiscal risk” to the Scottish budget, according to the body responsible for Scotland’s economic forecasts.
An “ideological” pursuit of austerity has replaced the Britain’s social safety net with a “harsh and uncaring ethos”, according to the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty Philip...
MPs have criticised the government’s decision to reject their calls to ease benefit sanctions for claimants, saying the system is pushing people into “grinding poverty”.
The government must lift the benefits freeze to stop increasing numbers of people falling into poverty, says Joseph Rowntree Foundation chief executive Campbell Robb.
Labour wants to create a benefits system based on “compassion and respect rather than distrust and stigma”, the shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood has told her party conference.
Child poverty has risen twice as fast as official figures suggest and has been significantly underestimated in government data, a think-tank has warned.
Thousands of sick or disabled people have missed out on employment support allowance due to the government’s “inept” handling of payments, MPs have claimed.
A charity is demanding a major shake up in the social security system because of “shameful” shortcomings that left one and a half million people in destitution in 2017.
Any future recession will hit the poorest families even harder if proposed benefit cuts go ahead, according to a new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The gig economy can offer some useful opportunities to people who struggle to work in conventional ways. The government should make the most of them, says Ben Dobson of Reform.
