The “invisibility” of poverty in Japanese society has long been one of the reasons for...
Government cuts
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19/11/2012
Austerity threatens ‘social crises’
The combined impact of benefits reform and public sector cuts is putting huge strains on a welfare system already 'buckling' in the face of growing demand and underfunding, according to a think-tank report. The long-term result is that social crises are likely to build up leading to unsustainable human, social and economic costs.
The report is the outcome of an 18-month project with people in some of the most deprived communities in Birmingham and Haringey (London), designed to explore their experiences of the government’s austerity measures and its ambitions for building a ‘Big Society’.
Category: Reports -
12/11/2012
UK heading for bottom place on public spending
by Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby, University of Kent
By 2017 the UK is set to have the lowest share of public spending among major capitalist economies, including the USA, as a result of the exceptionally harsh cuts in public spending currently planned. But is this really necessary?
Category: Articles -
05/11/2012
Response to Northern Ireland's Draft Budget
This paper is concerned with the likely impact of the Spending Review on living standards in Northern Ireland and especially the living standards of those with the lowest incomes. The cuts in Treasury funding for Northern Ireland are greater than many assume. By 2014-15 all Departments will have substantially lower current budgets in real terms than in 2010-11. The cuts in public spending are occurring in a context of a stagnant employment rate, rising unemployment and restricted opportunities for younger people.
Category: Policy response -
22/10/2012
Benefit cuts ‘hitting disabled people hardest’
The government's benefit cuts are hitting disabled people hardest of all, according to a new report drawn up by a coalition of over 90 disabled people's organisations and charities. The report highlights the precarious circumstances of many disabled people, drawing on a survey of over 4,500 respondents and a poll of more than 350 independent welfare rights advisors.
Category: Reports -
17/10/2012
Disabled people ‘worse off’ under universal credit
Up to half a million disabled people and their families – including children and disabled adults living on their own – will be worse off under the government's proposed new universal credit scheme, according to an inquiry led by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.
The inquiry report summarises the findings from three pieces of research looking at survey evidence from almost 3,500 disabled people and their families. The three reports examined the impact of universal credit on families with disabled children, people receiving the severe disability premium, and disabled working people.
Category: Reports -
08/10/2012
Coalition plans £10 billion benefits cut?
Plans to cut a further £10 billion from social security spending by 2016-17 were signalled by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in his speech to the Conservative Party conference. These cuts would come on top of the £18 billion savings already announced by the government in 2010. In a joint newspaper article with Iain Duncan Smith, Work and Pensions Secretary, Osborne suggested that steps would be taken to limit the number of children in workless families for whom benefits are paid, and to withdraw housing benefit from young people under 25 who have never worked. Prime Minister David Cameron also specifically referred to housing benefit cuts for young people in his own conference speech a few days later.
Category: News stories -
17/09/2012
Damaging impact of benefit cuts in Birmingham
The damaging impact of the government's proposed cuts to social security benefits has been highlighted in evidence submitted to a Birmingham City Council inquiry. The worst impacts will be felt on child poverty, people on low pay, young homeless people, disabled people, and people living in social housing.
The aim of the Council's inquiry is to understand what the implications of welfare cuts might be for communities and individuals in Birmingham, and whether there will be an impact on social cohesion in the city.
Category: Reports -
26/08/2012
PM’s local council joins revolt over benefits change
Council officials in the Prime Minister’s own constituency have expressed concern over government plans to ‘localise’ support arrangements for council tax payers on low incomes. An internal report, seen by the Observer newspaper, criticises plans to make local authorities responsible for the arrangements from April 2013 while cutting the budget for them by 10 per cent.
West Oxfordshire District Council says that after it has met legal obligations to protect vulnerable groups (pensioners, the disabled and families with children) the 10 per cent cut will mean that people on low earnings will be hit disproportionately. It estimates that working-age people who currently pay nothing will suddenly have to find £420 a year.
Category: News stories -
22/08/2012
Social Fund support cut by over 14 per cent
Many local authorities are worried about a looming shortage of money for local schemes replacing Social Fund provision, according to campaigners.
The Social Fund currently helps people with needs that are difficult to meet from regular income. It provides maternity, funeral, cold weather and winter fuel payments; and a discretionary element covers community care needs, budgeting loans and crisis loans. From April 2013 key parts of the scheme will be replaced by new local arrangements, delivered by upper-tier local authorities in England and by the Scottish and Welsh Governments. Money for local schemes will not be ring-fenced.
Category: Reports -
17/08/2012
Benefit cuts to hit housing association tenants in Scotland
Housing association tenants in Scotland stand to lose up to £228 million by 2017 as a result of the government’s reforms to social security benefits, according to a report.
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations commissioned a study of the direct and indirect impacts of welfare reform on working-age tenants of housing associations and cooperatives in Scotland. By 2017 many existing benefit payments, including housing benefit, will have been fully replaced with a single universal credit.
Category: Reports
