The government’s planned benefits system overhaul could cut welfare spending by £11bn a year when fully implemented – but the health-related benefits bill will still far exceed pre-pandemic levels,...
A profound shift in welfare policy that has seen pensioners benefit at the expense of the working-age population has weakened the social security safety net for those most in need, according to new...
Carers could be alerted “as a matter of course” when their earnings reach the permitted threshold under changes being considered by the government to tackle the crisis in allowance overpayment.
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.
