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.
International evidence has shown that devolution of welfare-to-work schemes to local authorities can improve services – if funding and accountability challenges can be overcome.
There has been very little frontline progress on the delivery of the government’s Universal Credit benefit reform, despite £700m having been spent on it, the Public Accounts Committee said today.
David Cameron has said a future Conservative government would consider cutting benefits for people with conditions such as drug and alcohol addiction or obesity if they do not agree to treatment.
The government’s Universal Credit benefit system is being rolled out across the UK from today, marking the start of what work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith is calling a ‘cultural change’...
Government and councils have been urged to consider how expansion of payment-by-results systems to pay for public services can work for vulnerable people with multiple needs.
Government cuts to benefits mean total welfare spending will be £16.7bn lower by the end of the parliament than it would have been without the changes, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found.
