Benefit cuts and caps threaten Universal Credit’s central objective of ensuring people are always better off in work, the Trades Union Congress warned today.
The June Spending Review is going to slice Whitehall’s funding cake so thinly that departments will be left fighting over the crumbs. So how are public services meant to cope, asks Tony Travers
The number of households expected to be affected by the government’s cap on benefits has fallen by 16,000 to 40,000, the Department for Work and Pensions has revealed.
Scotland is better placed economically than the rest of the UK to afford pension commitments, benefits and other social welfare costs, according to a Scottish Government report.
Disability campaigners have warned that more than half a million disabled people are set to lose out financially as benefit changes come into force this week.
MPs have urged ministers to look again at the costs of creating a single-tier state pension, warning that bringing forward the change could have ‘significant implications’ for public sector employers.
This month, local authorities face one of their trickiest balancing acts yet. They have to meet the twin challenges of government changes to council tax support and business rates, without losing out...
MPs today urged the Department for Work and Pensions to re-examine the impact of the ‘bedroom tax’, warning that the Housing Benefit reductions could hit divorced parents and disabled people.
The controversial ‘bedroom tax’ is the latest in a tsunami of benefit cuts. And with Housing Benefit caps and cuts to disability payments, claimants are feeling the squeeze. Claudia Wood investigates
The government needs to ensure people without internet access do not lose out as more public services, including Universal Credit, are moved online, the National Audit Office said today.
Scottish local authorities today criticised the UK government’s ‘extreme and ill thought-out’ welfare reforms, warning they could have ‘a real and long-term damaging effect on the most vulnerable in...
The head of the Social Market Foundation has challenged the chancellor’s claim that Annually Managed Expenditure is ‘out of control’ and warned that the proposed reforms will be ‘tricky’ to implement.
The government is to ‘massively extend’ the tax-free childcare support available to working parents with young children, Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced...
A bigger share of public spending will be focused on health, pensioner benefits and debt interest payments by 2017/18, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
The public sector is ‘woefully underprepared’ for the impact of an ageing society and urgent government action is needed to avert a crisis in English health and social care services, peers warned...
More than half of the town halls developing new Council Tax Benefit schemes to take effect in April will receive cash to keep bills down, local government minister Brandon Lewis announced today.
Charities, housing associations and other local organisations should be given a greater role in employment services to ensure Universal Credit benefit changes do not damage deprived areas, according...
