UK Poverty Post

One vote today could prevent debt agony for millions

Today marks a pivotal moment for the UK’s 60-year-old welfare system.

The Welfare Reform Bill starts ‘Report Stage’ in the house of Lords today – a five-day debate, where the House decides whether to change the legislation by voting on amendments proposed by individual Peers.  The Welfare Reform Bill contains a radical set of reforms that will affect the lives of millions in the UK. The implications of even the most minor errors in design are practically unimaginable. So today [...] Continue Reading…

Would ‘Early Action’ deliver better and cheaper public services?

Yesterday’s Autumn statement reconfirmed what many have long suspected: there is no imminent prospect of a boom in public spending to match that of the New Labour years. Yet as spending on public services dwindles the needs of those who rely on them do not, as the organisations Oxfam works with to tackle poverty in the UK know all too well. The increasingly urgent question, then, is how to provide effective public services more cheaply.
At a report launch last [...] Continue Reading…

Heating or Eating – no one should have to choose

A household is said to be in ‘fuel poverty’ if it needs to spend more than 10% of its income on fuel to in order to maintain a satisfactory temperature. The latest Government figures show that there are 5.5 million households in this situation.

We are living in financially difficult times and everyone is feeling the pinch and having to tighten the purse strings. Now, following the announcement of rises in the price of gas and electricity by fuel giants [...] Continue Reading…

Raising benefits in line with prices is the very least we can do

Last week, rumours abounded that the Treasury was considering increasing benefits by less than the rate of inflation. The inflation figure for September tends to be used each year as the reference point for raising benefit and pension levels in line with the cost of living. But there have been rumblings that this year’s level, 5.2%, is too high, and that raising benefits by that much would be ‘unfair’.

Average earnings are rising at less than the rate of inflation, [...] Continue Reading…

Whose Economy? Starting the conversation towards a fairer Scotland

Several key messages were generated by the discussions in the Whose Economy? seminar series – which resulted in a series of papers now available here – and not the least of these was the importance of forensic social science in identifying and analysing who benefits and who loses from current economic structures and processes.  Underpinning this was the commitment and freedom of social scientists to undertake such action research with passion and objectivity.

It followed from the ensuing debates over [...] Continue Reading…

The People’s Budget – our communities’ right to budget

Thousands of people are involved in the tough decisions about spending priorities for 10-18% of the mainstream council budget.
Which British city am I describing? Well I’m actually talking about Brazilian cities transformative experience of Participatory Budgeting. But it is this experience of widespread and deep public involvement in how to spend local public money that is the inspiration for the new “People’s Budget” campaign.
Eleven year’s ago Oxfam Brazil facilitated a visit by Manchester community activists to witness the significant [...] Continue Reading…