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Government policy
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06/12/2012
Chancellor hits benefits again
Most benefits and tax credits for working-age people will be cut in real terms for three years in a row from 2013-14, under plans announced by the Chancellor in his 2012 Autumn Statement on the public finances.
The Chancellor admitted he would fail to meet his pledges on public borrowing as a result of worsening prospects for economic growth. Forecasts of growth from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility were revised down significantly for every year between 2012 and 2016. As a result, the Chancellor said, the government's 'austerity measures' would have to be extended until at least 2017-18 – three years longer than originally promised.
In overall terms, however, the measures outlined in the Autumn Statement were neutral in their effect on the public finances. Instead the Chancellor chose to make significant changes in the way spending cuts will fall on different groups and areas of spending.
Category: News stories -
20/11/2012
‘Government fails to deliver’ on income inequality
More action is needed to address income inequality, according to a collection of articles scrutinising the coalition government's record mid-way through its term of office. Despite early suggestions that inequality would be a high priority for the government, it has so far failed to deliver.
Category: Reports -
17/11/2012
Ex-minister calls benefits cap ‘immoral’
A former coalition minister has condemned the government's plan for a benefits cap as 'immoral'. Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather MP accuses the government of seeking to 'gain popularity at the expense of children's lives' and of demonising claimants.
Teather, who was a children's minister until sacked in September 2012, made the remarks in an interview with the Observer newspaper. From April 2013 the government will cap total household benefits at £500 a week for a family and £350 a week for a single person with no children.
Category: News stories -
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 -
31/10/2012
Social justice – outcomes framework published
The government has published a framework for implementing its social justice strategy. It emphasises that the indicators set out in the framework are not a set of 'targets', but are instead designed to highlight priorities and identify where progress is (or is not) being made.
The framework is divided into five areas:
Supporting families. Keeping young people on track. The importance of work. Supporting the most disadvantaged adults. Delivering social justice.For each of these themes, the government says it will concentrate on 'one or two' indicators of progress. The first progress report is promised for March 2013.
Category: Reports -
24/10/2012
Policy based on unethical research
by Nick Bailey
In July this year, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) published the Listening to Troubled Families report with a great fanfare. Its stated aim was ‘to inform [government] thinking and policy development’. At its launch, Secretary of State Eric Pickles hailed the report as providing ‘real insights into these families’ lives’ and as offering a ‘true understanding of the challenges local authorities face’. The government had set aside £448 million to tackle the problems identified. In short, the report was portrayed as a solid piece of research driving an ‘evidence-based’ approach to policy making.
Category: Articles -
16/10/2012
Universal credit ‘likely to help low-income families’
The new universal credit system is likely to increase financial help for working families on low incomes more than middle-income families, especially in the case of couple families. That's the conclusion of a 'preliminary assessment' of the government's planned scheme by think-tank researchers.
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
Government considers ending benefits-inflation link
Anonymous 'sources' have told the BBC Newsnight programme that the government is considering ending the automatic annual increase in benefits in line with inflation.
According to the report, senior government figures are proposing a two-step change to the payment of benefits. At first there would be a freeze to a wide range of working-age benefits to last for two years. After that a new link would be introduced between benefit payments and increases in wages. The change would not be implemented quickly, but could be in place by 2014 – in time for the next General Election. Potential savings are 'simply mind-boggling' – as much as £7 billion a year.
But one benefit not being targeted is the state pension. Pensions are currently protected by a 'triple lock', rising each year by either inflation, earnings, or 2.5 per cent – whichever is highest.
Category: News stories -
11/09/2012
People on low incomes at risk from indexation change
The government's decision to change the way benefits and tax credits keep up with rising prices will cost the typical family with children £614 a year, says a think-tank analysis.
In the 2010 Budget the Chancellor announced that from April 2011 the uprating of benefits, tax credits and public service pensions would be based on the consumer prices index (CPI) rather than the retail prices index (RPI) - typically producing a lower figure. The think-tank report looks at what this change will mean for family budgets in the five years after the introduction of the new universal credit.
Category: Reports
