The government’s planned benefits system overhaul could cut welfare spending by £11bn a year when fully implemented – but the health-related benefits bill will still far exceed pre-pandemic levels,...
The Scottish Government faces “significant pressures” on spending despite modest funding growth since its last budget, according to the nation’s economic forecaster.
The government is delaying publication of its child poverty strategy until the autumn as it considers scrapping the controversial two-child benefit cap.
Government plans to cut disability benefits could leave local authority social care services and the NHS facing extra costs of £1.2bn, a think-tank has warned.
An independent inquiry will investigate carer’s allowance overpayments that saw claimants who unwittingly breached earnings thresholds being forced to repay millions of pounds.
Scrapping the two-child limit would be a quick and cost-effective fix for child poverty – but the benefit cap would wipe out the gains for the poorest families, research has revealed.
Welfare funding at almost three in five councils will not be replaced if an £820m hardship scheme comes to an end in September, the government has been warned.
Over 300,000 people have been pushed into poverty by rising mortgage interest rates, according to a new report warning policymakers could be misled by poverty statistics which mask the true scale of...
Local authorities are being put under unsustainable financial pressure by their duty to tackle homelessness, with some warning that the demand for temporary accommodation risks pushing them into...
Clamping down on disability benefits without a proper understanding of why the welfare bill is soaring is “risky in the extreme”, and may exacerbate poverty, a new report has warned.
A profound shift in welfare policy that has seen pensioners benefit at the expense of the working-age population has weakened the social security safety net for those most in need, according to new...
Carers could be alerted “as a matter of course” when their earnings reach the permitted threshold under changes being considered by the government to tackle the crisis in allowance overpayment.
Scotland’s devolved benefits are to come under the scrutiny of the national spending watchdog, which warned that growing expenditure on health and social security will intensify financial pressure on...
Benefits should be increased on a guaranteed basis every year as part of an overhaul to improve the consistency, transparency and accountability of the social security system, the government has been...
The Conservative Party “will always protect public services”, the chancellor insisted as he announced his ambition to cut civil service numbers back to their pre-pandemic level.
