What impact is the cost of living crisis having on families' abilities to keep warm this winter? Parents and carers on a low income who are part of Changing Realities have shared their experiences.
We welcome the commitment from the Scottish government that tackling child poverty is a top priority. Scottish government policies are working. However, soaring inflation and real terms UK benefit cuts in 2022 mean the gap between family incomes and the minimum cost of raising a child is widening horribly. It is more important than ever that all budget decisions are developed through a child poverty lens to understand the direct and indirect impacts on low-income families.
Frances Ryan, Welfare Rights Worker at CPAG in Scotland, takes a look at ‘adult disability payment’ (ADP), a new disability benefit for working-age people who live in Scotland.
The DWP has just confirmed that it's pressing ahead with managed migration (the process by which people on the old ‘legacy’ benefits will move to universal credit (UC)). Here are six reasons for alarm as the government forges ahead with its plans to move 1.7m people by the end of 2024.
My name is Brian, I am a single parent to one daughter, we live in the south of England and I claim disability benefits. The impact on children due to the rising cost of living is heartbreaking and will have a long term impact on them. Being a single parent with a teenage daughter is tough enough but now we are having to make cutbacks to the bare minimum. My daughter now has to live in a cold, dark home as I am unable to afford the rising cost of gas and electricity, which is having a real impact on her studies during exam times. My daughter is 16 years old and currently studying hard for her GCSEs and looking forward to continuing studies for her A levels after the summer.
We undertook research to find out whether the DWP is meeting the needs of people with mental health problems and making adjustments to their service as required by law. UC was promoted in its early stages as a personalised service, providing support to meet people’s needs. We wanted to find out whether it has lived up to this ambition.
An update to the report we published at the beginning of 2021 highlighting that delays carrying out assessments for disability benefits meant that many disabled people were not receiving or were losing support intended to help them meet the additional costs of their disability.
This report highlights that delays carrying out assessments for benefits mean that many disabled people are not receiving, or are losing support, intended to help them meet the additional costs of ill health or disability.
The year 2020 has put unprecedented pressures on families bringing up children. Parents across the world have taken on new challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic in keeping their children healthy and safe as well as properly fed, educated and entertained at a time when they have been required to stay at home, and when many families’ livelihoods have been threatened. Our cost of a child report looks at what items families need to provide a minimum socially acceptable standard of living for their children in 2020.