Today sees the benefit cap – the limit on total benefits which households can receive if no-one works at least 16 hours a week – fall from £26,000 a year to £20,000, or £23,000 in London.
Following a complaint by CPAG, the BBC Trust has ruled that the programme The Future State of Welfare with John Humphrys, broadcast in October 2011, breached accuracy and impartiality rules.
The Chancellor George Osborne announced spending proposals for the year 2015/16 this afternoon. CPAG is deeply alarmed at cuts to benefits for jobseekers that will mean more of them are sent to foodbanks almost as a matter of policy.
Responding to today’s spending Review Statement by the Chancellor, Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: “The decision to delay eligibility for Job Seekers Allowance to seven days is a ‘foodbanks first’ policy that will hurt families stuck in the low pay – no pay cycle, moving in and out of insecure, low-paid jobs, and will lengthen foodbank queues...
A new report reveals that the government’s welfare benefit uprating legislation is based on bogus claims and is a poverty-producing bill that will further exclude the poorest workers, jobseekers, carers and disabled people from the mainstream of society.
