Tax credits were designed to be responsive and flexible, supposedly delivering support to reflect families' current needs and resources. Mark Willis looks at how the system responds to the effects of the recession.
The Social Security (Lone Parents and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2008 were laid on 23 November 2008. Its provisions are implemented at varying dates from 24 November 2008 through to 2011, in most cases. Beth Lakhani describes the main changes.
Judith Paterson looks at changes to housing benefit (HB) and council tax benefit (CTB) applicable amounts for employment and support allowance (ESA) claimants and considers some better-off issues.
How will the current downturn in the labour market affect poverty? Adrian Sinfield looks back at previous recessions and asks what can be learnt in order to prevent a similar rise in poverty to that seen in the 1980s.
In November 2008 the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit asserted that recent research demonstrated that government policy was improving social mobility in the UK.
