Halfway through its term in office, the coalition is still looking for a route map to recovery. The chancellor’s Autumn Statement must offer some way out of here, argues Steve Freer
The coalition government has very little knowledge or understanding of the impact its public sector workforce cuts are having, the Work Foundation warned today.
CIPFA has criticised the government offer of cash for Council Tax Benefit schemes that limit the amount working-age people will have to pay as 'badly timed' and 'confusing'.
Long-term youth unemployment in England has increased by almost a quarter since the coalition government took power in 2010, the Trades Union Congress said today.
The government will cut another £10bn from the welfare budget within four years, targeting housing benefits for young people and payments for children, George Osborne told the Conservative Party...
Almost half of the charities involved in the government’s flagship Work Programme fear their contracts under the scheme are not sustainable and could collapse in the next six months, a survey has...
It is abundantly clear that George Osborne’s Plan A has failed. Instead of just waiting for something to turn up, he needs to use the Autumn Statement to launch a radical programme for economic...
Paying welfare benefits on a monthly basis and making claimants directly responsible for their rental payments could push some low-income households into debt, the Social Market Foundation has warned.
Next year councils take charge of business rates and council tax support. As the levels of both are heavily dependent on changes in local economies, finance departments will have to keep one step...
The coalition partners don’t agree on much. And the political perils of shrinking the state mean that small is no longer quite so beautiful, argues Philip Johnston
Councils could mitigate the cut in Council Tax Benefit funding by tackling fraud and error when they take over the system next year, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said yesterday.
Ministers have been urged to tackle youth unemployment after latest figures revealed that almost 1 million young people are not in education, employment or training.
The £1.25bn of funding being channelled through the pupil premium is not necessarily going to be well spent, both the Sutton Trust education charity and Ofsted have warned.
Up to £126m is being made available to businesses and charities in England that succeed in getting thousands of jobless youngsters back into education or training.
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has hit out at the Department for Work and Pensions after its accounts were qualified for the 24th successive year.
There is ‘not a snowball’s chance in hell’ that the government will reach the statutory target to eradicate child poverty by 2020, former Labour minister Alan Milburn said today.
Working families with children have been dealt a ‘triple financial blow’ in the recession through cuts to tax credits and rising costs of childcare and transport, according to the Joseph Rowntree...
Around 25% of the early participants in the government’s flagship back-to-work scheme were off benefits after 36 weeks, figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions have revealed today.