Nearly two out of every three households who are affected by the coalition government's 'bedroom tax' cannot find the money to pay their rents, according to new research for the National Housing Federation.
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Nearly two out of every three households who are affected by the coalition government's 'bedroom tax' cannot find the money to pay their rents, according to new research for the National Housing Federation.
A future Labour government would restore the 50p tax rate for those earning over £150,000 a year, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has said.
The previous Labour government created a new 50 per cent tax band in 2010 for anyone with income of more than £150,000 a year, but this was cut to 45 per cent by the coalition government in April 2013.
Unemployed people who lack basic skills should be denied access to benefits unless they take up training, according to the opposition Labour party. The proposal was made by Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Rachel Reeves, in her first major speech since taking up her new post.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has said he wants to see an above-inflation increase in the minimum wage. In an exclusive interview with the BBC he said that the adult minimum wage, currently £6.31 an hour, would have to increase to £7 an hour by 2015 for its value to return to where it was before the global economic recession.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has offered support for the idea that families should only be able to claim child benefit for their first two offspring. He told the Sunday Times: 'It’s a brilliant idea'.
Thousands of people have been wrongly identified as being liable for the 'bedroom tax', including some who now face eviction or have been forced to move to a smaller property, according to a report in the Guardian newspaper. This is a result, says the paper, of an error by the Department of Work and Pensions.
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has announced a significant expansion of free school meals and childcare provision. As part of a £114 million package for young people over two years, every child in Scotland in the first three years of primary school will have the option of a free meal in school from January 2015.
The television broadcaster Channel 4 has begun showing a five-part documentary series about people living in a deprived street in Birmingham. The series – called 'Benefits Street' – was filmed in James Turner Street in the Winson Green area of Birmingham: the area has a very high rate of unemployment and the street has many residents who rely on benefits for their income.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has revealed plans to cut an extra £25 billion from public spending by the end of 2017-18 if the Conservatives win the next election, with benefits spending as the main target for reductions.
One in eleven people in Britain fear they won't be able to afford their monthly rent or mortgage payments in 2014, according to new research from the campaign group Shelter. The research was based on a YouGov survey of over 4,000 adults.
The findings show household budgets across the country at breaking point, Shelter says. Families are the worst affected, with over 70 per cent of rent or mortgage payers with children struggling or falling behind with their payments, compared with 63 per cent of the general population.
PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.