Analysis: Wow! The Tories Are Planning to ‘Level Up’ Britain Again
by James Morrison
Rishi Sunak’s overtures about ‘levelling up’ the ‘left behinds’ obscures who really needs help.
Tag: benefits
Report: The DWP Is ‘Unlawfully’ Chasing People to Pay Back Benefits Claimed in Lockdown
by Sophie K Rosa
Claimants who relied on universal credit during the pandemic have had threatening letters and phone calls from private debt collectors following a Kafkaesque ID checking process.
Analysis: Right to Buy 2.0 is an Unmitigated Disaster
by Ell Folan
Boris Johnson’s bright idea for winning back young voters is only going to deepen their misery, writes Ell Folan.
Opinion: We Cap Fuel Prices. Why Not Food?
by Ella Thorold
Supermarket price-gouging is pushing millions of Britons toward starvation. The solution is simple, writes Ella Thorold.
Opinion: Why Suspicion of Benefits ‘Scroungers’ Could Be About to Reach New Heights
by Jim Kaufman & Jamie Redman
As an economic crisis and labour shortage bite, Jamie Redman and Jim Kaufman outline how the UK benefits system is getting more punitive by the day.
Opinion: Britain’s Inhumane Benefits System Is Giving People PTSD
by Jay Watts
The psychological violence of welfare applications is destroying our mental health - and an increasingly two-tier benefits system won’t help, writes clinical psychologist Jay Watts.
Downstream: The Capitalist War Being Waged on Disabled People
Ellen Clifford speaks to Michael Walker about her book “The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of Human Catastrophe”, including an explanation of the Social Model of Disability, the history of the Disabled People’s Movement, and the disastrous consequences of austerity policies.
Opinion: This Isn’t Just About Universal Credit – Our Entire Benefits System Is a Joke
by Andrew Fisher
While the campaign to cancel the £20 cut to Universal Credit is welcome, we risk atomising our struggle against a broken system, argues Andrew Fisher.
Report: Jobcentre Staff Were Taught to Inflict ‘Psychological Harm’ on the Unemployed
by Sophie K Rosa
A new report reveals how the coalition government pressured jobcentre staff to bully the unemployed out of claiming benefits. Sophie K Rosa reports.
Analysis: No, Benefit Claimants Still Aren’t Exploiting the System
by Josh Gabert-Doyon
The digitisation of Universal Credit is reinforcing old prejudices about benefit fraud, fuelling a new moral panic. Josh Gabert Doyon explains what's actually going on.
Opinion: Experts by Experience: Benefit Claimants Should Design Our Social Security System
by Ellen Clifford
People who have become experts on the benefits system by navigating it themselves are designing an alternative to the harmful and counterproductive model the government has created. Ellen Clifford explains.
GE2019: ‘It Absolutely Needs to Go’: We Asked People Affected by Universal Credit If It Should Be Scrapped
by Natalie Leal
The Conservative government’s flagship welfare reform, Universal Credit, has been besieged by problems from the very start, driving thousands into debt and to foodbanks. We asked recipients and people who work with them what they think of Labour's plan to scrap the system entirely.
Report: Universal Credit Is Riddled With Issues, but Have Some Flaws Been Deliberately Designed Into the System?
by Natalie Leal
Universal credit has proved so unfit for purpose that Labour has said it will replace it entirely if elected next month. But perhaps the most controversial element of the policy is mounting evidence that suggests some of its cruellest flaws aren't accidental failings; the Tories may have deliberately built them in to the system to deter claimants.
Universal Credit: Charity Food Banks Forced to Compensate for Failing Benefits System
by Natalie Leal
With charity food banks forced to expand into the space left behind by a shrinking welfare state, we spoke to three women who rely on them.
Freedom of Movement and Benefit Tourism: Paying Attention to the Background
by Raia Apostolova
Behind the folk devil figure of the ‘benefit tourist’ - which has become so prominent in the Brexit debate - is the politics of freedom of movement and the realities of those who are forced to be mobile to reproduce their lives.
4 Ways Generation Y is Being Taken for a Ride (and 3 Ways it’s Pushing Back)
by AltGen
Youth unemployment is sky-rocketing and Cameron is seeking to take away benefits from young people. Against this trend of declining living standards, students in the US are organising debt strikes and in the UK youth-led workers' co-operatives are multiplying.
The Miller’s Tale: A Tale of Two Camerons
by Novara Reporters
The ongoing tale of Maria Miller has captured the public's vitriol on recent days. First among the defendants has been our leader, David Cameron. Ever the stalwart of all that is right and proper, we contrast two incriminating articles of evidence which tell a different story.