Category Archives: Welfare

Keir Starmer warns of tough times ahead to fix ‘Tory ruins’

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Labour leader tells working people rot left by Conservatives is so much worse than imagined and improvement won’t happen overnight

British people will have to endure even worse economic and social ­pressures in the months to come as the Labour government takes “unpopular decisions” to rebuild the country from “rubble and ruin” left by the Tories, Keir Starmer will warn this week.

With the prime minister under mounting pressure from within his own party to help people struggling with rising fuel payments and millions of families in poverty, Starmer will strike a defiant note against those demanding U-turns from his ministers, saying “tough choices” will have to be made before any recovery is possible.

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Which benefits are available to vulnerable people under Labour?

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As the winter fuel allowance is scrapped for many pensioners, we outline some other key benefits

• Millions facing ‘cruel winter’ without fuel payments, Labour MPs warn

Labour backbenchers are warning that millions of vulnerable people will face a “cruel winter” amid rising energy prices and a reduction in benefits, including the removal of winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.

Keir Starmer’s government has promised to improve conditions for those most in need, with a commitment to “reduce and alleviate” child poverty and end the “moral scar” of food banks. And while Labour sees economic growth and creating more reliable and well-paid jobs as crucial to achieving these aims, it cannot ignore a number of pressing and often interrelated problems in the social security and benefits system.

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Social support payment systems may be reviewed as DV commissioner warns they are being ‘weaponised’ against women

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Micaela Cronin highlights concerns that payment systems are used to punish current and former intimate partners

The federal government is considering an across-the-board audit of social support payment systems to identify whether they are putting people at risk, as the commissioner monitoring its national anti-violence plan warns they are being “weaponised” against women.

The domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner, Micaela Cronin, suggested on Wednesday that the government was reviewing all of its payment systems out of concern that they were being used to punish current and former intimate partners.

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Major job provider accused of trying to get jobseeker to sign off on false work invoice

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Woman claims APM threatened to cut off her jobseeker payment after she refused to sign false time sheet. APM denies any wrongdoing

One of the country’s biggest job providers is accused of pressuring a jobseeker to sign a false description of her employment status, an alleged deception which would have triggered a publicly funded payment to the company.

The Victorian woman, who did not want to be named, claims the employment service provider APM asked her to sign paperwork confirming she had worked four weeks when she had actually spent months on sick leave. APM has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

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Ditching two-child benefit cap would cut deaths and A&E admissions, study says

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England research shows huge benefits with resulting savings for NHS and councils

Curbing child poverty by scrapping the two-child benefit cap would save hundreds of lives a year and avoid thousands of admissions to hospital, the largest study of its kind suggests.

Keir Starmer has faced repeated demands from within Labour ranks and opposition leaders to abolish the policy, which was announced in 2015 by George Osborne, then chancellor. Almost half of all children in some towns and cities now live below the breadline.

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Centrepay report that found major failings ‘ignored’ by successive Coalition governments, author says

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Advocate Anna Buduls AO says her 2013 report, which found major failings with the controversial Centrepay debt recovery system, was mostly forgotten about

A government-appointed reviewer who warned the government of serious problems with its Centrepay debt recovery system 11 years ago says her report was “mostly buried” and ignored and has expressed “huge sadness” that people continued to suffer.

Anna Buduls was tasked by the Gillard government in 2012 to review the controversial system. She recommended a significant overhaul of the system to stop the “exploitation of financially vulnerable people by some unscrupulous operators”.

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UK pensioners left on ‘financial cliff edge’ by cuts to winter fuel payments

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New analysis shows tens of thousands of older people may end up worse off than those who retain energy benefit

Tens of thousands of pensioners are on a financial cliff edge because of the government’s decision to radically restrict winter fuel payments, a new analysis has revealed. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, opted to introduce a means test for the payments, with only those on pension credit qualifying, stating it was one of the “difficult decisions” she had to make, as she accused the Tories of leaving £22bn in unfunded commitments.

The decision removes the payments from about 10 million pensioners in England and Wales. Officials said this weekend the policy would be among a package of measures “to fix the foundations of the economy”.

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Media exposure has forced the government’s hand on Centrepay. The contrast with robodebt could not be more stark

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The Centrepay revelations should shock Australians – but not the government, after years of complaints about financial exploitation

In the months since the government announced it would overhaul its controversial Centrepay debit system, one thing has become abundantly clear.

Many already knew it was failing.

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Consumer watchdog urges crackdown on businesses using Centrepay to cause financial harm

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It is alleged energy companies deducted money from welfare payments of people, including Indigenous Australians, who were no longer customers

The consumer watchdog has joined a group of regulators, lawyers and financial advocates calling for a crackdown on predatory businesses using the government-run Centrepay to cause financial harm to welfare recipients, including Indigenous Australians.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair Catriona Lowe said the watchdog had heard complaints about Centrepay – a debit system giving businesses early access to people’s welfare money – for “many years”.

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Benefit cap traps families in crowded, rat-infested homes, report finds

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Limit on welfare support, introduced in 2013, leaves some with just £4 a day for each family member

Low-income families affected by the benefit cap are living on as little as £4 for each person a day, often in overcrowded, rat-infested and damp homes with little prospect of escape, according to a new study.

The cap puts a ceiling on the amount a working-age family can receive in welfare support if no one in the household is working or they are on very low wages. Families affected by it in many parts of the country are, in effect, trapped in poor quality, private rented properties they cannot afford, even though these are often already the cheapest homes available in their local area, the London School of Economics study said.

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‘Will the kids eat or not?’ In Keir Starmer’s constituency, families struggle with poverty

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Alongside prosperity in Holborn and St Pancras are thousands of households for whom lifting the two-child benefit cap could mean an end to hunger

• The two-child benefit cap: what is it, does it work and how much would it cost to scrap it?

It’s been one of Cat Onyac’s better days. Her two children are concentrating on their crochet project, sitting in the sunshine at HvH Arts in north London. And they’ve eaten. “All the children get a hot meal,” she says.

The family is at a summer scheme for children in Camden on the edge of Keir Starmer’s constituency, and food is just as important as learning photography, painting or music.

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‘Unscrupulous’ businesses abused Centrepay to take welfare money from dead Australians, advocacy groups claim

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Advocates also detail flaws in automated debit system that prevented clients stopping their deductions

The government’s Centrepay debit system has been abused by “unscrupulous” businesses to take welfare money from dead Australians and Indigenous women fleeing domestic violence, advocacy groups claim.

The government last month announced a major review of Centrepay, an automated debit system designed to give businesses early access to a person’s welfare money to ensure they can afford essential services such as rent and healthcare.

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Vaughan Gething quits as Welsh first minister but hits out at ‘pernicious’ claims of wrongdoing – UK politics live

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His resignation comes after four Welsh ministers stepped down from their posts in an apparently calculated move to force his hand

The JD Vance comment about Britain supposedly becoming an Islamist country under Labour (see 8.42am) is an example of the extreme political rhetoric that has coarsened politics on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years. Yesterday Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced that she will chair a meeting of the Defending Democracy taskforce to consider how election candidates are being exposed to more aggression and intimidation than in the past.

This morning Brendan Cox, whose wife, the Labour MP Jo Cox, was murdered by a far-right terrorist during the Brexit referendum in 2016, told the Today programme that he thought the problem was getting worse. He said:

There was a wide range of intimidation, but I do think it was another level.

Having spoken to lots of MPs about it, there was a sense that something had changed, that they felt hunted, that they felt unable to go about campaigning – that there were men in balaclavas, there were fireworks being thrown, there were tyres being slashed …

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Yvette Cooper to chair meeting of taskforce considering ‘alarming rise’ in candidate intimidation – as it happened

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Home secretary to host meeting of government’s Defending Democracy taskforce after reported rise in harassment during election campaign

More in Common, the group that campaigns to reduce polarisation in politics, published a good slideshow presentation last week, based on polling it carried out, giving an analysis of the general election results. It has followed that up today with the publication of a 129-page report on the election, based on the same polling and on what it learned from focus groups.

One of the main interesting points it makes is that the government will be judged, above all, on whether it can bring down NHS waiting lists and the cost of living, polling suggests. The report says:

How does the public plan to judge the government on its delivery of change and what benchmarks will they use to evaluate progress?

First and foremost, the public will look to NHS waiting lists and the cost of living to judge Labour’s success or failure. These are top performance indicators for every segment, with the elderly tending to be more concerned than average about waiting lists and younger generations more so about the cost of living. As inflation falls and interest rates seem set for a summer cut, waiting lists are arguably the new government’s key challenge in maintaining public support.

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Greens and academics criticise appointment of antisemitism envoy – as it happened

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Flights have been cancelled or delayed out of Brisbane airport this morning as thick smoke blankets the city.

According to the Brisbane airport website, nine domestic flights and two international flights have been cancelled. On social media, the airport wrote that widespread fog across Brisbane was “slowing movements on ground and limiting visibility.”

Flights are still departing but there are delays due to the reduced visibility.

Participants will be able to check accessible scorecards that will show what services DES providers offer and how they rate for quality and effectiveness, helping them make an informed choice when selecting their provider.

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Abolished cashless debit card still divides, two years after Labor ordered its demise

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Some users reported ‘poor decision making’ and financial coercion while others experienced positive outcomes such as reduced discrimination

The majority of past cashless debit card users have said the ending of the program was a positive step that reduced stigmatisation and discrimination but some reported it led to “poor decision making” and financial coercion once the controversial scheme was abolished, a review has found.

The review by the University of Adelaide found reports of alcohol use and gambling had increased in most of the areas where the card was formerly used. But it noted “no causal statements can be issued” about whether the card’s abolition was to blame, saying other factors, like local trends and the cost-of-living crisis, could be at play.

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Sunak and Starmer clash over tax, borders and Brexit deal in final head-to-head before polling day – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read our full report on this debate here

YouGov will have a snap poll on who won the debate, with the results available minutes after it finishes.

This is what Labour is putting out ahead of the debate, in a stateement from Pat McFadden, the national campaign coordinator.

Tonight, the British people will witness the choice at this election: five more years of chaos with Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives or change with Keir Starmer and Labour.

On 4 July, the British people will have the chance to vote for change. To stop the chaos, turn the page and start to rebuild our country with Keir Starmer and a changed Labour party.

Tonight, Keir Starmer has the opportunity to announce loud and clear to the British public what his intentions are.

Throughout this campaign we have challenged the Labour party, time and time again, to come clean on their plans for taxes. Time and time again they have declined to do so.

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Shadow energy minister says system in ‘dire trouble’ – as it happened

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Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.

We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.

We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.

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Starmer faces further calls for Labour to axe two-child benefit cap

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IFS research shows 670,000 more children will be hit by policy by end of next parliament if limit stays in place

Keir Starmer is facing renewed pressure to scrap the two-child benefit limit, as research reveals that 250,000 more children will be hit by the policy over the next year alone.

Labour’s manifesto for government, published last week, included the promise of an “ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty”, but no mention of the two-child limit.

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Tory welfare reform cost working-age families thousands while pensioners benefited – report

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Retirees or those on disability benefit are biggest annual winners, while large families are £4,600 worse off, says Resolution Foundation

Pensioners and people on disability benefits are the winners from radical changes to the welfare system made by the Tories over the last decade, while working-age families are losing out by thousands of pounds every year, according to a report by the Resolution Foundation.

The Conservatives’ 14-year overhaul of social security has shifted spending away from children and housing to supporting elderly people, and broken the link between entitlement and need for some of the poorest households in the country, the report says.

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