More than half of all universal credit payments to families with children in Scotland have money deducted by the Department of Work and Pensions, including because of debt owed to public bodies,...
The four-year freeze on Local Housing Allowance rates is to be lifted in April bringing the benefit in line with inflation, the government has announced.
The public sector needs to work together to improve the future performance and sustainability of its services, leaders told the official launch of major analysis on government spend.
Whichever party addresses the shortcomings of universal credit, it should commit to designing the system hand in hand with claimants, writes Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Iain Porter.
Labour has promised to scrap the “unmitigated disaster” of Universal Credit and replace the Department for Work and Pensions with a ‘Department for Social Security’.
The Scottish Government’s borrowing powers are likely to come under increasing pressure due to the volatility inherent in the fiscal framework, MSPs have heard.
The introduction of universal credit, and in particular the five-week delay before receipt of the first payment, has led to an “unacceptable” rise in rent arrears north of the border.
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...
Child poverty remains one of Scotland’s most stubborn public policy conundrums – but new research suggests the key may lie in an overhaul of the universal credit system, which would target the...
The next stage of an ambitious programme to devolve social security benefits to Scotland will pose a “significant challenge” to the Scottish Government, the country’s national spending watchdog has...
Government’s £386m spending on Jobcentre-based support for disabled people has not reduced the number who are out of work, the spending watchdog has found.
The chancellor’s claim that the Brexit agreement would bring a ‘deal dividend’ to keep taxes low and support public services is “not credible”, a group of MPs has said.
The government must lift the benefits freeze to stop increasing numbers of people falling into poverty, says Joseph Rowntree Foundation chief executive Campbell Robb.
The government has side-stepped “the cruellest benefit cut in history” with the latest universal credit changes, according to the chair of the work and pensions committee.
