Work and pensions committee chair Frank Field has written to chancellor George Osborne to urge him to publish a five-year impact assessment of the government’s proposed tax credit changes,...
Failures in tackling fraud and error in the benefits and tax credit systems remain prevalent, with combined underpayments and overpayments in excess of £47bn in 2013/14, the Public Accounts...
Back-to-work schemes should be overhauled to ensure they focus on the needs of people with social problems and those furthest from the job market, MPs have said.
The Treasury has defended controversial proposals to further cut spending on tax credits, saying reforms introduced since 2010 are projected to save £15bn by 2016/17.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell has promised that the new fiscal and welfare powers to be devolved under the 2015 Scotland Bill will be “a game-changer.”
Conservative reforms to the welfare system are intended to make individuals take responsibility for their own lives, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has told the party’s...
Shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith has pledged to change the debate on social security to reflect that what he called a national asset that represents the “collective pooling of risk...
The government’s flagship Universal Credit welfare reform will be available in three-quarters of all jobcentres by Christmas under the next phase of its national rollout, ministers have said.
MPs are to probe the effectiveness of local welfare provision, including devolved council tax benefit schemes, in order to determine best practice across the country.
Less than one-sixth of the losses faced by households from the summer Budget benefit cuts will be recouped by the introduction of the ‘national living wage’, the Institute for Fiscal...
The government’s tax and benefit changes will cost poorest households an average of £460 a year, despite the minimum wage increase, a Trades Union Congress analysis has found.
Cuts to benefits announced in the summer Budget will leave thousands of low-income households worse off next April despite the introduction of the “national living wage”, Unison claimed...
The number of debt recovery cases sent by local councils to bailiffs has increased by one-sixth in just over two years, figures from the Money Advice Trust have revealed.
Family carers for vulnerable children in Scotland are likely to be left worse off under Universal Credit because of the UK government’s failure to take proper account of Scotland’s different legal...
The government is to implement major reforms to unemployment support for under-25s from April 2017, with young people set to lose benefits if they turn down job offers, apprenticeships or training.
The poorest 10% of households pay the highest proportion of their gross income in taxes of any income group, according to an analysis by the Taxpayers’ Alliance.
With concerns that Generation Y is missing out on government largesse, do public accounts need to be more transparent and reflect the costs of, say, future pension liabilities? It’s a question...
People who suffer from obesity or substance abuse problems could see their benefits cut if they fail to accept appropriate treatment, the government has warned today.
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...
