Leaders of Scotland’s five main political parties clash during live TV debate
Momentum, the leftwing Labour group set up when Jeremy Corbyn was leader, is not happy about Keir Starmer’s jibe about Corbyn’s manifesto.
Labour’s 2019 manifesto was fully costed.
Keir should know, he stood on it as a member of the shadow cabinet.
How about stopping attacking your own side during an election @Keir_Starmer?
Justin Warren first lodged request with the then Department of Human Services in January 2017
The federal court has ruled against a decision blocking access to early robodebt documents drafted under the former Coalition government, as part of one man’s long-running fight to shed light on the scheme’s origins.
Justices Geoffrey Kennett, Anna Katzmann and Shaun McElwaine ruled that a December 2022 decision made by the administrative appeals tribunal (AAT) to keep some robodebt documents exempt, including draft costings and new policy proposals, should be set aside due to procedural unfairness and because the AAT had incorrectly agreed with the cabinet confidentiality exemptions Services Australia applied.
Continue reading...Nacc says it decided not to launch corruption probe ‘as it would not add value in the public interest’
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) won’t pursue an investigation into six individuals referred by the robodebt royal commission, due to separate public service investigations being carried out into five of them.
The Nacc said on Thursday that it was “unlikely it would obtain significant new evidence” and had concluded it was “undesirable for a number of reasons to conduct multiple investigations into the same matter”.
Continue reading...Shadow minister says it is Justin Welby’s job to speak out but Labour could not commit to scrapping policy
The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, has praised the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, for calling on Labour to scrap the two-child benefit cap, saying it was “literally his job” to speak out on such matters.
Streeting said he did not like the cap, which campaigners say has pushed hundreds of thousands of families into poverty, but that the party could not commit to ending it until it knew how this would be financed.
Continue reading...‘Strikingly large’ sum being recouped from people who fell foul of system that did not flag overpayments
Ministers are clawing back more than £250m from unpaid carers over benefit infringements that occurred largely as a result of government failures, it can be revealed.
More than 134,000 people who care for loved ones are being forced to repay often huge carer’s allowance overpayments. The debts are incurred in many cases through no fault of their own, and leave carers saddled with enormous debts, and some with criminal convictions.
Continue reading...Little wonder welfare ministers were so reluctant the publish the study they commissioned five years ago
There are plenty of reasons why welfare ministers were reluctant to publish the study they commissioned into unpaid carers’ experiences of carer’s allowance five years ago, and which has finally emerged under duress.
In 2019 they had undoubtedly been chastened by criticism from MPs and auditors that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) did not understand how a relatively little known benefit was causing oceans of misery and hardship for carers.
Continue reading...Announcements are ‘good steps’ to reduce harms caused by employment services system but fall short of the overhaul required, advocates say
The Albanese government will relax some of the requirements imposed job seekers as a condition for their income support, with a suite of changes expected to prevent around 1m welfare payment suspensions every year.
Changes to the mutual obligations scheme, contained in the federal budget, will ease the rules that govern when a person’s payments are suspended, meaning job seekers will have a five-day grace period – rather than 48 hours – to account for missing employment services appointments and other activities before their income support is cut off.
Continue reading...‘There is more than one way to help people who are on income support,’ treasurer says when suggesting rebates and concessions could be boosted
The federal government is poised to expand rebates and concessions available to job seekers in next week’s federal budget, which is also expected to increase rent assistance.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has confirmed that Tuesday’s budget will not increase the jobseeker payment but suggested it would boost concessions linked to social security payments, among a suite of measures designed to offer cost-of-living relief without pushing up inflation.
Continue reading...Services Australia says it is also working to retrieve overpayments from Queensland’s Ergon Energy
The federal government has not audited AGL’s use of Centrepay in two years despite revelations that the energy giant wrongly received more than $700,000 in welfare money from its former customers through the government-run debit system.
A Guardian Australia investigation of Centrepay, a system allowing businesses access to welfare payments before they hit recipients’ bank accounts, has revealed significant failings.
Continue reading...Scotland’s first minister resigns after failing to muster enough votes to survive a no confidence vote this week
Humza Yousaf is holding a press conference at noon, Sky News and the BBC are reporting.
Mandy Rhodes, editor of the Holyrood magazine, says she was due to interview Humza Yousaf this afternoon, but he’s cancelled.
Continue reading...Private job providers can claim public money when jobseekers find work. But they need their payslips to do so, and some resort to extreme methods to get them
A former employee of one of Australia’s biggest job network providers has spoken up about the extreme methods they use to claim public money when jobseekers find employment.
One researcher called the process – supposedly designed to help people enter the workforce or increase their hours – a “crazy system that doesn’t work for anyone”.
Continue reading...Concern grows over legality of government’s approach as new figures show more than 150,000 carers facing huge penalties
New figures show more than 150,000 unpaid carers are now facing huge fines for minor rule breaches, as MPs, charities and campaigners demanded an immediate amnesty.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, joined calls to write off the vast debts incurred by tens of thousands of people who care for sick, disabled and elderly relatives after experts raised concerns about the legality of the government’s approach.
Continue reading...Charities say high rates of people signed off work are caused by crumbling public services after years of underinvestment
Rishi Sunak has been accused of making mental ill health “another front in the culture wars”, as critics warned his plan to curb benefits for some with anxiety and depression was an assault on disabled people.
In a speech on welfare, the prime minister said he wanted to explore withdrawing a major cash benefit claimed by people living with mental health problems and replacing it with treatment.
Shifting responsibility for issuing fit notes, formerly known as sicknotes, away from GPs to other “work and health professionals” in order to encourage more people to return to work.
Confirming plans to legislate “in the next parliament” to close benefit claims for anyone who has been claiming for 12 months but is not complying with conditions on accepting available work.
Asking more people on universal credit working part-time to look for more work by increasing the earnings threshold from £743 a month to £892 a month, so people paid below this amount have to seek extra hours.
Confirming plans to tighten the work capability assessment to require more people with “less severe conditions” to seek some form of employment.
Continue reading...Officials at Department for Work and Pensions accused of ‘threatening and cruel’ tactics over repayment orders
Government officials have been accused of using “threatening and cruel” tactics towards unpaid carers by saying they could face even greater financial penalties if they appeal against “vindictive” benefit fines.
This month a Guardian investigation revealed that thousands of people who look after disabled, frail or ill relatives have been forced to pay back huge sums after being chased by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over “honest mistakes” that officials could have spotted years earlier.
Continue reading...Labour leader was responding to a question from the BBC about Vivienne Groom, who was prosecuted over breach of benefit rules
Keir Starmer has called for fairer treatment of unpaid carers plunged into poverty after being forced to pay back thousands of pounds – and in some cases facing criminal prosecution – for minor breaches of benefit rules.
Last week the Guardian revealed thousands of carers had run up big debts, were given criminal records and forced to sell their homes when chased by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over “honest mistakes” that officials could have spotted years earlier.
Continue reading...Single people with long-term disability that stops them working will be much poorer after rollout, Resolution Foundation says
The rollout of universal credit is on course to make thousands of working-age disabled people significantly poorer, according to a report showing that more than 7 million people will be covered by the six-into-one benefit change before the end of the next parliament.
A single person with a long-term disability that prevents them from working is £2,800 a year worse off when they transfer to universal credit (UC), the Resolution Foundation said, adding that all single people with long-term disabilities will suffer this loss of income when the rollout of UC is completed by 2030.
Continue reading...Families minister says system is ‘not delivering the outcomes we want to see’ as almost 50% of children in care in NSW are Aboriginal
The New South Wales government will review a child protection tool that disproportionately affects Aboriginal children – and that has not been updated in the state for more than a decade.
The controversial system known as “structured decision making” (SDM) has been in use since 2010 to screen for at-risk children.
Continue reading...A Guardian investigation has revealed that Centrepay is exposing scores of welfare recipients to financial harm. Advocates say the government must act now
In February the Albanese government announced a $97m compensation scheme for thousands of Aboriginal people who lost all that they had paid to the predatory funeral insurer ACBF-Youpla.
When ACBF-Youpla collapsed in 2022, it left more than 13,000 Aboriginal people, some of them elderly and in palliative care, without the means to pay for funerals.
Continue reading...Services Australia’s failure to act ‘inexcusable’ and urgent action needed to help people struggling to get by, senators say
The corporate regulator repeatedly warned Services Australia that it should review and consider removing more than 100 companies from a government-run debit scheme that allows early access to welfare payments.
But it said its attempts to sound the alarm about potential misuse of the scheme have had no impact.
Continue reading...Services Australia is working with Ergon to return overpayments, prompting fears the issue first identified at AGL could be widespread
A second Australian energy company wrongly received money from the welfare payments of former customers, prompting fears that the issue identified at AGL could be widespread.
Guardian Australia revealed last week that $700,000 had been diverted via the government-run Centrepay debit system from the pockets of more than 500 welfare recipients to the energy giant AGL.
Continue reading...