social security
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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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Rights (and wrongs) of sanctions
Advice and Rights Manager 24 July 2014
At Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), we’ve had longstanding concerns about the use of sanctions, which are basically cuts to benefit payments of up to 100% for up to 3 years, and the obvious knock-on impacts on child poverty. And as the letter in today's Times that we and others have signed shows, we’re not alone in having profound concerns with how sanctions are working.
Until now, there’s been little authoritative evidence of how sanctions are being applied, rightly or wrongly, beyond data suggesting a huge increase in their application in recent years.
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Tribunal ruling on DLA entitlement for disabled refugee children
Trainee Solicitor 19 April 2016
CPAG welcomes the Upper Tribunal decision on disabled refugee children who up to now, have not been entitled to disability living allowance (DLA) until they have spent over two years in the UK. On 17 March 2016, Judge Kate Markus QC found that the current past presence test unjustifiably discriminates against refugees and their family members and should therefore be dis-applied.
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You can’t reduce poverty without an adequate welfare state
Chief Executive 21 January 2014
No one denies that Rachel Reeves, as Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, has one of the toughest gigs in town. Fiscally, it seems a Labour government would cap spending on social security. Politically, at a time when highly punitive policies such as the benefit cap attract broad public support, Labour is sensitive to proposing any reform that could be spun as "soft on scroungers". Getting the politics and the economics right will not be easy.
