Welfare
Welfare Commission: humanising decision making and appeals in the benefits system
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010Today the Department for Work and Pensions Select Committee publishes its report on decision making and appeals in the benefits system, the headline press coverage reports that overpayments due to error had soared from £400 million in 2000, while overpayments due to fraud and mistakes by claimants dropped. As part of the solution the select [...]
Negative language on welfare reform isn’t working
Thursday, January 28th, 2010David Coats is Associate Director of Policy at the Work Foundation, and this post has been reproduced with the kind permission of the Open Left blog. In addressing how the Left should renew its fight against poverty, he cites the problem of the current rhetoric around welfare reform, promoted by politicians and picked up by [...]
Melanie Phillips is almost convinced
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010The second half of Melanie Phillips’ journey to meet Britain’s ‘Feckless Poor‘, broadcast yesterday on Radio 4, was fascinating for the way her opinion seemed to shift, often unknowingly, as it progressed.
She met a series of people working long hours for very low pay in often-exploitative conditions: a man who leaves the house at 4.00am [...]
What happened when Melanie Phillips met real people on benefits
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010Last night was the first of Melanie Phillips’ two programmes on the ‘British work ethic’ on Radio 4, (listen on iplayer for the next week), which she also described in her column. I was particularly interested because we declined an invitation to help in the making of the programme, but also for her reactions to [...]
The Better Off in Work credit and the Hidden Economy Advisory Group
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009Edit: We only just noticed, hidden away at the bottom of this page, the introduction of the ‘Hidden Economy Advisory Group’ in today’s Pre-budget report. This is fantastic news, it’s great that government is recognising the importance of those working informally, and looking at positive steps to include them in the formal economy. A major [...]
£5 earnings cap traps people on benefits
Friday, December 4th, 2009Today saw the launch of our Need Not Greed campaign’s demand for the earnings limit on Jobseekers Allowance to go up from £5 to £50. It was discussed on the Today Programme (mp3), and Nicola Smith of the TUC gave a great interview on BBC Radio 5 Breakfast (mp3).
People on JSA face a £5 cap [...]
Personalised service and Knight’s digital vision
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009Personalised service = zero human interaction. An online welfare system; modern, instant and resistant to human frustration or despair: the computer says no. I just read today’s announcements by Jim Knight MP, the employment minister about improving the Jobcentre’s service. If you have a lack of computer skills you will get a technologies budget to [...]
End Child Poverty 4 in 10 Campaign
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Community Links is a member of the End Child Poverty coalition and keen supporter of the campaign aims.
Recently children and staff from Community Links’ Arc in the Park open access childcare project worked with filmmakers from ECP to make a film for the London 4 in 10 campaign, raising awareness of the log lasting impact on young [...]
Just the beginning for welfare reform
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009Despite the Welfare Reform Bill passing into a law a couple of weeks ago, there seems fairly universal acceptance that there’s still a lot of welfare reforming to be done (including, some would argue, undoing the damage done by the most recent set of reforms).
The questions left are around the direction of future reform, its [...]
Fraud and error in the benefits system – where DWP are going wrong.
Monday, November 16th, 2009Last week the Department for Work and Pensions released their annual figures (PDF) on fraud and error in the benefits system. It seems a good time to make exactly the same points we made last time this happened.
Firstly lumping together fraud and error is misleading and means everyone (including Teresa May, in the Telegraph article [...]
We spent a week debating the way poverty is portrayed in the media, generating over 20 fascinating posts from a wide range of authors. 