Universal credit is simply inadequate to meet day to day living costs. This means despite temporary cost of living payments, many households face deep financial precarity, using loans to cover bills and, in some cases, going without heating or hot meals.
27
Oct
Oct
More than 3 million working-age adults in the UK receive health-related benefits. The government has announced plans to first tighten, and then scrap entirely, the Work Capability Assessment – one of the two assessments used for determining eligibility to these benefits
26
Oct
Oct
The CPI inflation figure for September (6.7 per cent) is the basis on which key working-age benefits are normally uprated in the following April. But with the public finances under real pressure, and prices expected to fall in the coming months, there are signs the Government is considering a departure from standard practice by under-indexing key working-age benefits in 2024-25.
25
Oct
Oct
The first five years of life are crucial to a child’s development and to protecting them from future mental health conditions. With half of mental health conditions established by age 14, there is overwhelming evidence for providing support to parents and young children as early as possible. This means there is an important opportunity for the treatment and prevention of mental health conditions and the promotion of mental wellbeing and resilience.
24
Oct
Oct
The existing policy approach to increasing State Pension age in the UK, alongside a lack of action to address the relatively high numbers of people out of the labour market due to ill health, risks pushing more people into hardship.
23
Oct
Oct
Public Law Project (‘PLP’) is an independent national legal charity. We are researchers, lawyers, trainers, and public law policy experts. Our aim is to make sure state decision-making is fair and lawful and that
anyone can hold the state to account. For over 30 years we have represented and supported people marginalised through poverty, discrimination, or disadvantage when they have been affected by unlawful state decision-making.
20
Oct
Oct
Our homes are fundamental to our health and wellbeing. Decent and affordable homes must be available for everyone, but right now they’re not.
The lack of a long-term plan for housing has led to the housing crisis we are living through today. The issues we face around housing are systemic. If we don’t act to fix the housing crisis, things will get much worse for people living in England.
19
Oct
Oct
Housing challenges are faced by people of all ages, but the stories of older people on a low income who are renting are often hidden and rarely part of the conversation.
Yet a growing number of older people are renting privately, and it is essential that the private rented sector in England delivers for them too.
18
Oct
Oct
A briefing paper explaining how council tax is applied to empty properties in England, Scotland and Wales, including the ’empty homes premium’.
17
Oct
Oct
This paper outlines a proposal for transformative long term change, to develop a new public employment service, which should be underpinned by strategic alignment between the UK’s industrial strategy and employment support services, and action to bring more decision-making about jobcentres and wider employment support services closer to local communities.