The DWP’s twitter account contained a lovely Valentines message. The picture was pink with hearts flowers and clouds, and the message scrolls in “Declaring your Love tomorrow? Don’t forget to declare your TRUE LIVING ARRANGMENTS too – tell us your change of circumstances.” Followed by the ominous …
Poverty and Inequality
Perpetuating a dangerous myth
Challenging the myths around ‘workless families’. For many years the myth of ‘workless families’ and a ‘culture of worklessness’ has been perpetuated by politicians who should know better. Recent debates over Universal Credit, and the scandal of Ben Bradley’s blog are just two examples of this. It …
Merry Christmas David Gauke
This year at 3generate (Methodist Children and Youth Assembly) we asked young people to take part in some activities which explored how the benefits system in the UK works. After taking part in our activities many of the young people saw a lack of fairness in the system and responded by writing …
Universal Credit: Solving one problem by creating another
The changes announced in Wednesday’s budget are likely to improve the often awful first weeks of a Universal Credit claim. The problem is that, rather than address the core flaws in the benefit’s design, they patch it over. The announcement is not so much a step in the right direction as making the …
JPIT briefing ahead of today’s Universal Credit debate (updated January 2018)
Universal Credit will be debated in Parliament today and the JPIT churches have sent a briefing to every MP outlining our concerns. The briefing outlines some of the key problems but the central message is simple: Universal Credit’s processes suit the lives of the relatively well-off, the people …
Universal Credit: Bending the evidence and carrying on regardless
At Prime Minister’s Questions Theresa May defended the roll out of Universal Credit by saying that the new benefit gets more people into work. Since July the Government has used the phrase, “[with] Universal Credit people are moving into work faster and staying in work longer than under the old …
Universal Credit – David Gauke’s inadequate answer to a huge problem
Paul Morrison explains why the Universal Credit announcements are not what they seem. Families applying for Universal Credit must wait 6 weeks for their first payment. This is causing huge problems. Families are building up rent arrears, debts and needing help from foodbanks as they wait for …
Benefit Cap cuts to single parents with young children is unlawful says High Court
The Benefit Cap causes real misery to no good purpose. While I agree with this sentiment it is not mine. It comes from the closing sentence of a High Court judgement which declares unlawful the Government’s policy of capping the benefits of single parents with children under 2 years old. The full …
A place to call home?
‘A place to call home?‘ is our latest resource on housing; a set of six bible studies for small group discussion focusing on a range of issues around housing. It is produced by our four churches in collaboration with Housing Justice and Scottish Churches Housing Action. Britain is facing a …
‘Incentives’, or walking by on the other side of the road
The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, has said this country is going to close its scheme helping unaccompanied child refugees because “We don’t want to incentivise [child refugee] journeys to Europe”. The Home Office appears to be arguing that the cause of children fleeing conflict zones such as Syria and …