Announcements you may have missed: Wednesday 27 March: Government announces that life expectancy falls for the poorest women in the UK. Dropping life expectancy in peacetime is extraordinary. The gap in life expectancy between rich and poor is also increasing, as is the gap in healthy …
poverty
Measuring Hunger – a big win for campaigners, and it’s only the beginning…
On Wednesday the news broke that the Government was going to measure the level of hunger in the UK. This is a major victory for supporters of the End Hunger UK campaign, including the four Churches which work together in the Joint Public Issues Team. More importantly the scale of hunger in the UK …
UK Poverty is a choice: UN Rapporteur on Poverty
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights recently undertook a 12-day tour of some of the poorest areas of the UK as part of an investigation into poverty in Britain. Professor Philip Alston is one of the legal global experts in the field of economic and social …
2 Minute Briefing: Will money fix Universal Credit?
Is the Budget enough to save Universal Credit? The budget delivered two tranches of extra money for Universal Credit (UC) - £1.7bn to improve Work Allowances and £1bn to help people moving onto UC from the old system. While the numbers are large they are not sufficient to reverse even the 2015 …
Meet Your MP: Using our voices
In a guest blog, Revd Katy Thomas, a Methodist minister from Wilmslow in Cheshire, writes about her experience of arranging a meeting with her MP last month. At the Methodist Women in Britain Conference earlier this year, Rachel Lampard from the Joint Public Issues Team spoke about Universal …
Universal Credit: From bad to farce
If Universal Credit (UC) was a horse, it would be shot - repeatedly. The DWP has just released a flurry of reports which paint a picture of a deeply troubled system. Despite their best efforts at a positive spin there is no hiding the problems. I am sure I will go into detail in other pieces but …
Happy Valentine’s Day from the Department of Work and Pensions
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 …
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 …