The Prime Minister must know he can’t scare people into good health, but his words this morning will be chilling for low-income families up and down the country who rely on our social security system for help.
South Lanarkshire Council’s Cost of the School Day Conference took place this week, where the local authority further cemented its commitment to equity by launching its Cost of the School Day guidance, and ten proposals.
There was very little in this Budget for children and families living in poverty. The Chancellor said yesterday that this government does not pass on its bills to the next generation, but the 4.2 million children living in poverty today are the next generation. Child poverty is scarring, and the decisions taken yesterday will leave a legacy of cold homes, empty tummies and crumbling classrooms. We are in urgent need of a plan to tackle child poverty.
Universal credit (UC) claimants are not always getting extra amounts of UC they’re entitled to when they become eligible for some other benefits because of poor data-sharing within the DWP.
It’s right that benefits are uprated as usual but this should never have been in doubt and legislation mandating inflationary increases is needed as a basic protection for living standards. Struggling families have been worrying themselves sick for months about whether an unmanageable income cut was coming in order to provide the government with a rabbit-out-of-the-hat moment.
More than 8,500 individuals and organisations gave evidence to the latest Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into benefit assessments. Carri Swann considers the government’s response.
Parents typically need to find at least £39 per week for a child’s secondary school education and £19 for a primary-aged child, research for Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) finds.
Researchers have found that going to school in the UK costs families of primary school children at least £864.87 a year, or £18.69 a week. This is before childcare costs are accounted for. For families of secondary school children, the cost of sending a child to school is at least £1,755.97 a year.
A social tariff that reduces the cost of fuel for low-income households could, in principle, more than halve the fuel poverty rate. Read a new briefing from academics at the University of York.