Labour has learned that austerity is hard to avoid
As long as economic growth remains anaemic, pressure on spending will endure.
ByWelfare
Punitive welfare reforms won’t help sick Britain
Repairing the NHS and social care is the best way to get the long-term ill into work.
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Oliver Anthony does not have the answers
Right-wing protest songs only benefit the wealthy and powerful.
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An “essentials guarantee” can end the need for food banks
Around 11.3 million people in the UK face hunger due to lack of money.
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The triumph of cash
How universal basic income was adapted for the neoliberal era.
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Why the trope of the benefit “scrounger” has returned
Welfare minister Tom Pursglove quotes Taken to try to sound tough on welfare “fraudsters”.
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Disability benefit delays are causing cancer patients’ health to worsen
People are waiting an average of 14 weeks to find out if they will get welfare payments, Macmillan research reveals.
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Disabled people shouldn’t be subject to “cruel” benefit sanctions, say charities
Jeremy Hunt wants his Budget to help “remove the barriers to work” for long-term sick and disabled people.
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Partner content
Universal Credit falls short of covering the bare essentials. That needs to change
Britain’s social safety net should guarantee food and warmth at the very least – but many are shocked to learn…
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Job centres are the front line for mental health services
We need to prevent people from becoming patients in the first place.
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In my great-great-grandfather’s poetry, I glimpse the Britain I report on today
George Lattimer, a trade unionist in Victorian London writing about fair pay and the workhouse, would still have plenty of…
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Posh but poor? The return of the squeezed middle
From new food-bank users to cash-strapped professionals, middle earners are being hit hard by the rising cost of living.
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Brits support universal basic income by 20-point margin
Exclusive: A majority of voters in the UK support a guaranteed monthly income from the state in every region, in…
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“IT problems” don’t stop Rishi Sunak raising benefits, says Universal Credit creator
The Chancellor’s claim that he can only increase welfare payments once a year is rebutted by tech expert Deven Ghelani.
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From the NS archive: Property of the professionals
30 September 1983: Much was wrong with welfare socialism from the beginning.
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There’s an easy way to help with energy bills, but the government won’t use it
Ministers are resorting to the nonsensical council tax system because they are ideologically allergic to raising Universal Credit.
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Did Covid-19 push public opinion in a more left-wing direction?
The landmark British Social Attitudes survey reveals a public more aware of inequality and sympathetic to welfare. But pollster John…
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Exclusive: New figures reveal Rishi Sunak’s flagship youth jobs scheme is having little impact
New data reveals that Kickstart, extended for four months by the Chancellor this week, is not driving a fall in…
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Conservative MPs have a familiar worry about the Universal Credit cut
As welfare is cut again, Tory MPs are haunted by the consequences of George Osborne’s 2015 Budget.
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Why Thérèse Coffey is wrong about Universal Credit claimants and work
High benefit withdrawal rates mean that claimants cannot simply compensate for cuts by finding two more hours of work a…
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