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19 May 22
The Scottish Government has been told it needs to figure out how £760m of annual benefit payments will be balanced alongside other spending.
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14 Jan 22
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...
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30 Sep 21
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.
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9 Oct 20
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.
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24 Feb 20
Benefit fraudsters will no longer be named by the government in Northern Ireland, after an order from the minister for communities.
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2 Aug 19
Northern Ireland’s Department for Communities lost nearly £60m to benefit fraud last year.
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28 Jun 19
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.
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28 Jun 19
There are three steps the government can take to transform the roll-out of Universal Credit, argues Jenny Luckett of Riverside Group.
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6 Jun 19
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.
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22 May 19
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...
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8 Mar 19
Ending the benefits freeze in the 2019 would enable 200,000 people in the UK to break free from poverty, a charity has claimed.
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14 Feb 19
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”.
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17 Jan 19
The government must lift the benefits freeze to stop increasing numbers of people falling into poverty, says Joseph Rowntree Foundation chief executive Campbell Robb.
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25 Sep 18
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.
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24 Jul 18
Child poverty has risen twice as fast as official figures suggest and has been significantly underestimated in government data, a think-tank has warned.
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18 Jul 18
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.
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8 Jun 18
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.
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9 Nov 17
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.
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6 Nov 17
Cuts to benefits will drive up child poverty, with biggest increase likely in the North East and Wales, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
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18 Jul 17
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.
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22 Feb 17
The government’s inconsistency in applying benefit sanctions is unacceptable and should end, MPs on the public accounts committee have said.
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5 Sep 16
Universal credit, which amalgamates six welfare benefits, still has cross-party support, despite being beset by delays and fears that it will fail to meet its main objective of encouraging people to...
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26 Jul 16
There should be a switch in how the government accounts for benefit spending as part of moves to introduce a “welfare earnback” for councils that can help people into work, a report has recommended.
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3 May 16
The government’s Universal Credit benefit reform scheme must be “reclaimed” from the Treasury in order to achieve its aim of making work pay, the Resolution Foundation has warned today.
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2 Mar 16
Incomes for the UK’s poorest households are likely to stagnate over the next five years, an Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis has revealed.