Two disabled women were told to turn up for an appointment to assess their benefits. But when they arrived, they say they could not access the building as there were no wheelchair ramps.
The government’s flagship welfare programme may never deliver value for money, according to a damning report by the public spending watchdog. The National Audit Office said that universal credit might end up costing more than the benefit system it was designed to replace, while leaving many of the most vulnerable claimants in hardship, waiting months…
Jackie Long
Today the National Audit Office released a report heavily critical of the Government’s flagship benefit programme Universal Credit – saying it is failing to deliver financial savings or employment benefits, all the while leaving some vulnerable benefit claimants struggling to make ends meet. This is a damning report but mostly because it’s on the back…
MPs have been debating the pros and cons of universal credit all afternoon.
The Prime Minister set out today to stave off any rebellion over the universal credit rollout by announcing a u-turn on the premium rate telephone helpline for claimants. Within a month it’ll be free. Labour had wanted a pause to the changes, amid claims that it will leave some people destitute. Andy Davies has been to Bath to…
The Prime Minister said that under Labour, 1.4 million people spent most of the last decade on out-of-work benefits. But she didn’t mention that many of those people were on disability or illness benefits.
Thousands of people with disabilities have already had their adapted vehicles taken away, because of changes in the benefit system. Now the charity Muscular Dystrophy UK says 900 people each week are losing their cars or scooters because they’re being denied the new Personal Independence Payments.
Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green discusses the disability issue. He was officially giving interviews on today’s unemployment figures – which have fallen to their lowest level in a decade – so we started there.
Charities claim hard-hit families could lose thousands of pounds a year – thanks to the two child limit on universal credit. We meet those already struggling to manage.
In a surprise move, the Chancellor tells MPs that his much-criticised plans to cut tax credits to working families are to be abandoned entirely.
Gary Gibbon
The former prime minister Gordon Brown passionately defends the tax credit system he created, but is less willing to pass comment on Jeremy Corbyn and his suitability as a future Labour PM.
Chancellor George Osborne says tax credit reforms will go ahead, despite the government’s dramatic defeat in the Lords on cuts for millions of low-income families.
Labour party policy on issues like Britain’s membership of the EU and nuclear weapons is becoming increasingly hard to pin down.
Will the poorer get poorer after the benefit changes announced by George Osborne? Darshna Soni meets a single mum with eight children, who is worried she could be evicted because of the welfare cap.
Gary Gibbon
The Institute for Fiscal Studies finds it is undoubtedly the case that tax credit recipients in work will on average be worse off as a result of the budget changes