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  • Rights (and wrongs) of sanctions

    By Paul Treloar Advice and Rights Manager 24 July 2014

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    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.

  • Tribunal ruling on DLA entitlement for disabled refugee children

    By Sophie Earnshaw Trainee Solicitor 19 April 2016

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    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.

  • Using legislation and caselaw

    Level: Standard

    training course

    Advisers regularly deal with complex areas of social security and tax credits law. This one-day course explores some of the legal skills required by lay advisers, and provides information on different aspects of the legal system. 

    The course covers:

    • Legal research skills – finding the law and legal precedents
    • Using legislation – Acts, regulations and caselaw
    • Using the annotated guides – Social Security Legislation (Sweet and Maxwell)
    • Interpreting legislation
    • Information on using the internet for legal research 

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  • Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill: Commons second reading

    8 January 2013
    news

    MPs this afternoon have been debating the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill, at its second reading.

    The DWP's impact assessment on the bill was published immediately before the debate. CPAG's media statement highlights that this assessment omits the poverty impact of the bill.

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  • You can’t reduce poverty without an adequate welfare state

    By Alison Garnham 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.

  • ‘Double Lockout Bill’ cuts real support for workers and jobseekers by 4%

    January 7, 2013
    press release

    A new report published today by Child Poverty Action Group, with contributions from a range of experts, reveals that the government’s welfare benefit uprating legislation is based on bogus claims and is a poverty-producing bill that will further exclude the poorest workers, jobseekers, carers and disabled people from the mainstream of society.

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  • ‘Double Lockout Bill’ – DWP Impact Assessment ignores impact on poverty levels

    January 8, 2013
    press release

    In response to the publication of the DWP impact assessment on the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill, Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said:

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