Our submission highlights that children who already faced a higher risk of poverty have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and will be particularly vulnerable during economic recession. Rising child poverty places high costs on society as a whole. It should therefore be of the utmost priority that families with children are able to easily access adequate financial support.
This report focuses on social security issues during lock down, highlighting problems making and maintaining claims without support, difficulties participating telephone assessments and appeals, some PIP awards stopping and uncertainty about whether others would be extended, a number of severely disabled and terminally ill people not receiving additional amounts they were entitled to and a gap in support for some carers.
This report concentrates on the impact of COVID 19 on migrants living in Scotland and highlights social security policy and administration has left some migrants with little or no income during the pandemic.
This report concentrates on the impact of COVID 19 on families living in Scotland and highlights that many families are struggling financially due to inadequate support from the social security system and/or being unable to work while schools and childcare providers are closed.
To understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted children’s experience of learning, we conducted some research through surveys and interviews. We gathered the experiences of 3,600 parents and carers, along with 1,300 children and young people, with an emphasis on the experiences of low-income households. We found that the cost burdens of school closures have fallen most heavily on families already living on a low income.
Financial support to low income families to pay for childcare through working tax credits is being replaced by the childcare element of universal credit. This Early Warning System report examines the impact of this change on parents and childcare providers.
In the second in this series, our report looks at problems with understanding decisions, challenging errors and protecting the rights of people claiming universal credit (UC). It outlines some of the problems claimants experience when they try to challenge a decision about their UC award. These problems have been identified by analysing case studies received via CPAG’s Early Warning System (EWS).
Universal credit: what needs to change to reduce child poverty and make it fit for families? calls for design and funding changes to improve claimants’ experience of universal credit and to reduce child poverty.
This report presents case studies and analysis from CPAG’s Early Warning System to highlight problems with the information provided to people claiming universal credit.
CPAG's early warning system takes the temperature of how changes to benefits are affecting families by highlighting the most problematic issues which advisers around the country are seeing. The latest update reveals ongoing problems with people being wrongly directed to universal credit and people moving to universal credit and becoming significantly worse off, as well as a number of problems with specific elements of universal credit: housing costs, real time information, access to appeal rights, and failure to adequately meet support needs.
Consultation with pupils and parents in Dundee schools highlights financial barriers to participation for pupils from low-income households and good practice in overcoming them.