Auditor general Amyas Morse has qualified his opinion on the 2014/15 resource accounts of Revenue and Customs due to error and fraud in the payment of tax credits.
The number of young people leaving care who are not in education, employment or training has increased in every year since 2007/08, with the current proportion costing the state £240m, auditors...
Former Treasury special adviser Julia Goldsworthy told CIPFA conference that the chancellor had delivered a ‘bold’ Budget, focusing on his key themes of lower taxes, lower welfare and...
In a statement filled with policy announcements, the chancellor reiterated his commitment to devolution. Councils must get their proposals to the government before they get landed with someone else’s...
The Budget gave us the answers to where the £12bn in welfare cuts will come from. But we need a more sustainable and strategic approach to the drivers of welfare spending.
The maximum amount that households can claim in benefits is to be cut from £26,000 to £23,000 in London, and £20,000 in the rest of the country, from next April as part of plans to...
The government has been urged to press ahead with deeper welfare cuts after analysis of official statistics showed that over half of UK households receive more from the state than they pay in taxes.
David Cameron has today pledged to end the “merry-go-round” of low-paid workers having their wages taxed but then receiving in-work benefits such as tax credits.
Neither the Treasury nor the Cabinet Office currently monitor how well payment-by-results schemes work, despite £15bn being spent through the contracts, the National Audit Office has said.
There have always been fraudsters who targeted the public sector at every level. Today, digitisation of public services is increasing the opportunities for criminals. And counter fraud experts...
The Universal Credit programme to merge six benefits into one payment should go ahead, but a series of changes are needed to maximise the number of people helped into work, the Resolution Foundation...
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.
A pensions expert has called for the Treasury’s Whole of Government Accounts to include an estimate of future state pension payments after finding these could more than treble the UK’s...
By 2030 most men and women can expect to live into their mid-80s. That will bring extras bills for health care, pensions and perks such as free bus passes. But isn’t it unfair for the burden to...
There will be a second Budget on July 8 to implement the Conservative manifesto pledges including a £12bn cut to welfare spending, George Osborne announced
Government plans to cut welfare spending could increase the pressure on hardship schemes run by local authorities, potentially leading to more people living in poverty, a Grant Thornton report has...
The Conservatives would pass a law to guarantee no increases to income tax, National Insurance or VAT over the next parliament if they form the next government, David Cameron has said.
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.
In a triple whammy, the government has cut town hall funding while creating additional costs and extra work for local authorities assisting people facing destitution.
There are signs that inequality in the UK is beginning to rise again following tax and benefit changes introduced since 2010, an economic analysis has found.
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.
A quarter of a million low-income households in England will pay more in council tax from this month following cuts in the support schemes run by town halls, a report has concluded.
