04 June 2020
The government has acted quickly to protect people’s economic livelihoods during the covid-19 pandemic. However, as raised in our previous Covid-19 briefing (March 2020), there is still no additional financial support beyond free school meal vouchers for families with children, despite these households facing significant extra costs.
13 May 2020
Yesterday, the Chancellor announced that the job retention scheme will continue until October. This will be a huge relief to the 7.5 million workers who rely on support from the scheme, and will avert a huge second surge in unemployment as a result of the crisis, which is already set to rise to it’s highest level for 25 years. This extension is welcome, but there is no reason why more generous unemployment benefits couldn’t exist in the UK permanently.
27 April 2020
Dr David Webster is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow (Urban Studies) at the University of Glasgow.
Most social security benefits are affected if you are in prison. This factsheet outlines the main issues that come up if you are remanded in custody or if you are serving a prison sentence.
20 March 2019
This blog shows what has happened to the value of three important social security benefits since 2009 up to last year 2018.
Employment support allowance (ESA) stops in certain situations, including where the claimant does not have limited capability for work (LCW) or is treated as not having LCW following failure to attend a medical examination without a good reason. Martin Williams takes a closer look.
03 April 2017
‘Fairness’ was the word Lord Freud used to justify the lowering of the benefit cap. But there is no fairness to be found in a policy that ignores assessed need, mostly affects people who can’t work to increase their income, and hits households with children in 93 per cent of cases.
22 March 2017
In April 2017, many social security changes come into force that affect children and young people. We outline their impact.
07 November 2016
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.
