Fury as Braverman depicts homelessness as a ‘lifestyle choice’

Posted on November 4, 2023 by Admin

Senior Conservative says home secretary should not discuss complex issue in such terms and advised her to use ‘wiser’ language

Suella Braverman has been rebuked by a senior Tory campaigner on homelessness after the home secretary provoked outrage by describing rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice.”

Bob Blackman MP, head of the all-party parliamentary group for ending homelessness, said Braverman was wrong to discuss a complex and serious issue in such terms and advised her to use “wiser” language.

Labour will set up ‘young futures’ youth programme to tackle knife crime

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Admin

Yvette Cooper will announce scheme that will also offer mental health support

Yvette Cooper will set up a £100m “tough love” youth programme to help tackle a knife crime epidemic and a mental health crisis among UK teenagers if Labour is elected, she will announce.

On Tuesday, the shadow home secretary will tell the Labour party conference in Liverpool that the “young futures” programme will target 92 communities under a Keir Starmer-led government that are blighted by youth crime and violence.

‘Deeply concerning’ inequalities in NHS heart valve surgery, report finds

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Admin

Female, black, Asian or less well-off patients are less likely to receive the life-saving procedure in England

Patients who are female, black, Asian or less well-off are significantly less likely to be offered heart valve surgery on the NHS in England, according to a report that experts say is “deeply concerning”.

People develop aortic stenosis when their aortic valve narrows as a result of calcium buildup, impeding normal blood flow. This causes shortness of breath, light headedness and chest pain.

English councils moving homeless families out of areas at almost three times official rate

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Admin

Exclusive: Data shows more than 34,000 households placed out of area last year, with some moved more than 200 miles away

Councils are moving homeless families out of their neighbourhoods at almost three times the rate that has been officially recognised, and some have been uprooted hundreds of miles from their support networks, according to research.

Data released under freedom of information (FoI) revealed that 34,418 households were placed out of area last year, based on responses from 80% of English councils. This incomplete figure suggests a total 172% above what was officially recorded for the previous year.

One in three of England’s university starters ‘may live at home’ this year

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Admin

Study shows cost of living influencing students’ choice, with fears of limiting effect on career options

‘I’m better off at home’: the commuter student

One in three students starting university this year may opt to live at home, according to new research that found rising costs and family needs are affecting the “Covid generation” of school-leavers.

Before the pandemic about 20% of first year undergraduates in England lived at home while studying, including older mature students. But a new survey of current sixth formers by University College London found that as many as 34% of 18-year-old school-leavers could stay at home if accepted by their first-choice university when exam results are published next week.

Britons living in deprived areas have poorer sleep quality, study finds

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Admin

First large-scale UK investigation of its kind discovers social deprivation and ethnicity both affect sleep

People living in deprived areas of the UK have poorer sleep quality than those in affluent areas, the first large-scale study of sleep across the population has found.

Black people reported the worst sleep overall, with the research finding both social deprivation and ethnicity affect sleep quality, irrespective of age, sex, personal wealth, employment and education.

Older UK workers who retired early in pandemic were ‘forced into poverty’

Posted on July 7, 2023 by Admin

Thinktank challenges view that those taking early retirement under Covid were relatively well off

Half of older adults who left the UK workforce amid mass redundancies in the first year of the Covid pandemic ended up falling into relative poverty, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

Britain’s foremost economics thinktank said job losses during the early stages of the crisis, coupled with the additional health risks faced by older workers, were likely to have forced many people into early retirement.

Keir Starmer refuses to commit to free school meals pledge

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Admin

Labour leader says ‘money is a big factor’ as he also declines to promise 6.5% pay rise for teachers

UK politics live – latest updates

Keir Starmer has refused to commit to supporting free school meals for all primary school children, as he stuck to a tough fiscal position despite pressure from inside and outside of his party.

The Labour leader also declined to commit to a 6.5% pay rise for teachers as he urged the government to resolve the dispute at the centre of strike action.

M&S offers money off children’s clothes in exchange for used school uniforms

Posted on July 3, 2023 by Admin

Promotion is designed to help parents who are struggling to afford clothes amid cost of living crisis

Families are being offered money off children’s clothes in Marks & Spencer if they donate school uniform hand-me-downs, as part of a push designed to help parents struggling to afford them amid the cost of living crisis.

The second-hand uniform collected will be sold via Oxfam’s high street chain as well as via a new “back-to-school” eBay shop. The tie-up is an extension of M&S’s existing “shwopping” partnership with Oxfam, in which customers drop off old clothing in exchange for loyalty card perks.

Who’s unhoused in California? Largest study in decades upends myths

Posted on June 20, 2023 by Admin

Most unhoused people are from in state and desire to find housing, while Black and older people are disproportionately affected

Nearly half of all unhoused adults in California are over the age of 50, with Black residents dramatically overrepresented, according to the largest study of the state’s homeless population in decades.

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) research released on Tuesday also revealed that 90% of the population lost their housing in California, with 75% of them now living in the same county where they were last housed. The study further found that nearly nine out of 10 people reported that the cost of housing was the main barrier to leaving homelessness.

‘Everyone’s welcome’: community unites at Coronation Big Lunch in Leeds

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Admin

‘Pay as you feel’ celebration in Armley, one of city’s most deprived wards, is one of more than 67,000 across bank holiday weekend

Parishioners had put out enough chairs in the grounds of Christ Church in Armley, Leeds, to seat about 80 people for their Coronation Big Lunch – but it was starting to become clear they may have underestimated.

Helped by sunny weather on Sunday, numbers were nearly twice as high, and it was not long before pews were being brought outside to seat the diverse gathering, one of more than 67,000 Big Lunches being held across the bank holiday weekend as part of the official coronation celebrations.

England’s poorer pupils face ‘geographic exclusion’ from top state schools – study

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Admin

Offering places by proximity results in selection of pupils from more affluent households, say researchers

Disadvantaged children are suffering “geographic exclusion” from England’s best state schools because they cannot afford to live near those with the best exam results, according to new research published by the University of Bristol.

The research found that very few state secondary schools give priority to pupils who qualify for free school meals, despite the government’s admissions rules being redesigned more than eight years ago allowing them to do so.

Act now on energy bills subsidy or see fuel poverty surge, says Martin Lewis

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Admin

Jeremy Hunt urged to reconsider raising state-subsidised energy rate from April as market prices make delay affordable

Jeremy Hunt must act now to reverse plans to raise energy bills from April, MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis has warned, saying the change cannot wait until the spring budget next month.

In a letter to the chancellor seen by the Guardian, Lewis warned more than 1.7m more households could be plunged into fuel poverty if he does not urgently commit to freezing energy prices.