London
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100 days of Sadiq Khan as Mayor of London
London Campaign Manager 10 August 2016
Saturday 13 August 2016 marks 100 days of Sadiq Khan’s Mayoralty. While 100 days can feel like a very long time in politics (just think of events post-Brexit), it’s scarcely sufficient time for sweeping policy change.
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9 reasons to protect child benefit
Chief Executive 17 July 2014
"I'm not going to flannel you, I'm going to give it to you straight. I like the child benefit, I wouldn't change child benefit, I wouldn't means-test it, I don't think that is a good idea."
So said David Cameron in March 2010. But the Prime Minister is being urged to drop this read-my-lips pledge when his party draws up its manifesto in the coming months.According to reports today the think tank Policy Exchange is calling for child benefit to be tapered away as families have more children. Others are urging him on to go even further.
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A new poll tax?
London Campaign Co-ordinator 16 July 2014
If I lost my job tomorrow, one of the things that I would expect would be that while I was not earning, I would not be paying tax. However, in 26 out of 33 London boroughs this is not the case: I would still need to pay council tax.
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Arrival of the Benefits for Migrants Handbook
9 October 2014
This guest blog is written by Rebecca Walker, author of the immigration and residence chapters of the Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook and lead author of the new Benefits for Migrants Handbook.
This week sees the publication of CPAG’s Benefits for Migrants Handbook which, many readers will agree, arrives not a moment too soon. 2014 has been a year of yet more restrictions on the benefit entitlements of people who have come to the UK. -
Betty: still too poor to pay
London Campaign Manager 2 September 2016
Yesterday we published a new report with Z2K, which shows the impact that abolishing council tax benefit has had on low income Londoners. Still too poor to pay: three years of localised council tax support in London reveals that localising council tax support has led to increasing numbers of households receiving court summonses, falling into council tax arrears and being referred to bailiffs.
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Families on the brink: welfare reform in London
London Campaign Co-ordinator 11 June 2014
London’s housing crisis is well publicised and well discussed. We're used to reading about extortionate rents being charged for box properties or a generation that is likely to be priced out of buying.
But there is another side to this crisis which is getting discussed less. Our new report, Families on the Brink, shows a London becoming unaffordable for people on housing benefit, leaving families at risk of being forced out of their communities and London at risk of losing its social mix.
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One year in: Mayor of London’s record so far
London Campaign Manager 11 May 2017
In his Manifesto, Sadiq Khan boldly declared that ‘in a city as prosperous as London, there is no excuse for child poverty’. He repeated this statement almost word-for-word in A City for All Londoners, his new vision for London, published in October last year. Obviously we agree, but what action has he taken since to tackle the drivers of child poverty? And by this we mean the high housing costs, lack of affordable childcare, underemployment and low pay in the capital.
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Promoting fairness? Lowering the benefit cap will push more families into poverty
Trainee Solicitor 25 July 2016
This autumn the benefit cap will be cut, squeezing low-income families even further and pushing more people into poverty. The Welfare Reform & Work Act 2016 lowers the cap to £23,000 per annum for families (or £15,410 for single claimants) in London and £20,000 for families (or £13,400 for single claimants) outside of London. There are currently 3.9 million children living in poverty. Projections from the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests that child poverty could rise by 50 per cent by 2020. Tightening the cap and taking away more support from low-income households will have a devastating effect on families and children.
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Remembering Tony Lynes
Emeritus Professor of Social Policy | University of York 20 October 2014
Tony Lynes, CPAG’s first member of staff, has died aged 85. He was hit by a car and died of his injuries in London’s Kings College Hospital on 12 October.
It started in 1965 with a meeting at Toynbee Hall to discuss the early results of what became Brian Abel-Smith and Peter Townsend’s The Poor and the Poorest – the book that ‘rediscovered poverty’. Tony then drafted the first memorandum, which was sent to Douglas Houghton, the social services overlord in the Labour cabinet. When there was no response, a second memorandum was sent to the Prime Minister in December 1965, coinciding with publication of the book. That meeting in March 1965 established CPAG, and Tony was appointed its first full-time Secretary in August 1966.
