Are we really all in it together….? And who is ‘we’ anyway?
Monday, October 25th, 2010 by Katherine Trebeck Posted in Inequality, Livelihoods, UK poverty, Welfare reform | 2 Comments »The Conservative's tag line of We're All in this Together is going to be seriously put to the test in the next twelve months. The Institute of Fiscal Studies' verdict on the Comprehensive Spending Review already put a dampener on ...
Oxfam’s response to welfare reform proposals now online
Friday, October 22nd, 2010 by Kate Kewley Posted in Equality, Gender, Inequality, UK poverty, Welfare reform | No Comments »Two important publications, online this morning from the UK Poverty Programme at Oxfam. In the first, Oxfam GB addresses the major issues raised by the coalition government’s consultation paper: 21st Century Welfare. This consists of three main aspects: an assessment ...
Government spending cuts and BME women’s groups
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 by Tekla Szerszynska Posted in Attitudes, Equality, Gender, Inequality, Refugees, UK poverty, Violence against Women | 1 Comment »The government would like to see capable community groups and volunteers taking responsibility for the issues that affect them, receiving the powers and rights they need from a trusting and supportive government. The government also believes that we have lost ...
The Meaninglessness of Fairness
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 by Katherine Trebeck Posted in Attitudes, Child poverty, Equality, Inequality, UK poverty | 6 Comments »I recently saw someone’s new Facebook status reading: “Belinda is having a well-deserved glass of wine after a hard day’s shopping. Thirsty work.” This suggests to me how quickly the term ‘fairness’ has become distorted and almost meaningless. While hesitating to ...
Oxfam response to the JRF’s ‘Working-age ‘welfare’: who gets it, why, and what it costs’
Friday, October 15th, 2010 by Moussa Haddad Posted in Attitudes, Livelihoods, UK poverty, Welfare reform | No Comments »Research published this week by the JRF is a timely reminder, as the government contemplates much-needed welfare reform, of how low benefit levels actually are. Unemployment benefit is only a tenth of average income, compared with a fifth thirty years ago. ...
Claiming benefits: fact not fiction
Friday, October 15th, 2010 by Julia Unwin Posted in Attitudes, Livelihoods, Welfare reform | No Comments »We know a lot about people of working age who are claiming benefit. We know from all our research that they will frequently have very chaotic and difficult lives. They may be mentally ill, or have long periods of distress. ...
