Low pay costs the public purse between £3.6bn and £6bn every year in tax credits to boost wages and the government should encourage employers to pay the Living Wage to reduce this subsidy, a report...
Introduction of the Personal Independence Payment for disabled people has been ‘nothing short of a fiasco’ that has let down some of the most vulnerable people in society, MPs have said today.
The Department for Work and Pensions has successfully introduced its new scheme for child maintenance payments, but its savings target could be at risk if the number of parents intending to reach...
Ed Miliband has announced that a future Labour government would replace Jobseekers’ Allowance for those aged under 21 with a new means-tested youth allowance, conditional on recipients undertaking...
The Audit Commission has called on councils to improve the quality of claims made for Whitehall grants or subsidies after finding one-third of all returns were qualified in 2012/13, including 78% of...
The number of people working in the public sector has fallen to its lowest level in 16 years after the part-privatisation of Lloyds Banking Group led to nearly 100,000 posts being reclassified in the...
Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has welcomed a report from a panel of experts calling for an independent Scotland to raise the minimum wage, inflation-link benefits, scrap the ‘bedroom...
There has been a 14% rise in the number of people who are facing debt problems as a result of paying back tax credits that were overpaid, Citizens Advice has said. However, the government insisted...
A future Labour government would increase the number of people auto-enrolled in workplace pension schemes in a bid to cut the amount spent on old age benefits, shadow work and pensions secretary...
Council tax arrears is now the biggest single debt problem reported to the Citizens Advice Bureau following government reforms that localised the support scheme for the tax, it has been revealed.
Labour has proposed linking the National Minimum Wage to average earnings in a bid to cut the cost of low pay to the public finances, estimated at more than £3.2bn.
The Pensions Bill has been passed into law bringing the introduction of a simple, single flat-rate state pension ‘a step closer’, the Department for Work and Pensions said.
MPs have warned there is uncertainty over how the Department for Work and Pensions will tackle fraud once the flagship Universal Credit benefit reform is introduced.
Labour has called on the government to clarify when benefit claimants are required to take a job with a zero-hours contract after warnings that those out of work could face sanctions if they turned...
People should be given a window of several years during which they can start receiving the state pension, consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers have suggested.
The government’s abolition of support payments to employers who have to pay out a large proportion of their wage bill on sick pay will make it harder to meet Chancellor George Osborne’s target for...
Jobseekers, carers, single parents and disabled people are being pushed further into poverty because of the government’s welfare changes, a report has claimed today.
The government should levy a windfall tax worth around £450m on payday loan firms and use the money to support an expansion of other forms of credit, the Institute for Public Policy Research said...
Uncertainty over when the computer systems needed to implement the government’s flagship Universal Credit benefit reform programme will be ready mean the implementation deadline could be missed, MPs...
Migrants arriving in the UK will have to wait for three months before they can apply for either Child Benefit or Child Tax Credit, under reforms being introduced by the Treasury from July
Rising levels of employment mean that the time is right to increase the obligations on jobseekers to prepare themselves for finding work, employment minister Esther McVey has said.
The government is not on track to meet its target to improve the lives of 120,000 troubled families before the next general election, the Public Accounts Committee has warned.
The government’s changes to Housing Benefit, including the introduction of the so-called bedroom tax, are causing financial hardship to vulnerable people, MPs have warned today
