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.
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...
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.
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.
Universal Credit will cut annual benefit spending by £2.7bn, an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found, but more than 2 million working families are likely to be worse off.
Chancellor George Osborne has said the Treasury will look at ways of compensating people who are set to lose out through tax credit changes after the House of Lords yesterday voted to stall the...
MPs are to probe the effectiveness of local welfare provision, including devolved council tax benefit schemes, in order to determine best practice across the country.
Less than one-sixth of the losses faced by households from the summer Budget benefit cuts will be recouped by the introduction of the ‘national living wage’, the Institute for Fiscal...
People who suffer from obesity or substance abuse problems could see their benefits cut if they fail to accept appropriate treatment, the government has warned today.
The Department for Work and Pensions 2014/15 accounts have been qualified once again because of “unacceptably” high levels of fraud and error in benefit expenditure, the National Audit Office said.
Universal Credit is intended to simplify out-of-work benefits and in-work credits, but in its present form it could make things more complicated for many of those it is meant to assist.
The National Audit Office has called on the Department for Work and Pensions to learn the lessons from recent reforms to the welfare system in order to improve how it manages change and anticipates...
The next government must reform council tax in England to end the ‘absurd situation’ of basing it on relative values in 1991, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has set out plans to cap annual increases in working age benefits at 1% as part of plans to close the deficit by the end of 2017/18.
The government’s Universal Credit benefit reform is likely to encourage more claimants into work, but could see them choosing to work shorter hours, at considerable cost to the Treasury, a Resolution...
