News

Every year generous Torfaen residents donate hundreds of gifts to the annual Christmas Santa Appeal to ensure that some of the most vulnerable children living in the borough don’t miss out at Christmas. This year’s Santa appeal opens on Monday 4 Nove...

REDUNDANCIES - HSBC is set to make thousands of redundancies and will reduce its business in Europe and the US after poor financial performance. The decision had been made by the newly appointed interim chief executive Noel Quinn, who pledged yesterd...

RETAIL NEWS - In September 2019, retail sales in the UK totalled £7.3 billion per week, the same as August 2019 and down from £7.6 billion in July 2019. This figure includes money spent in shops, supermarkets, in petrol stations and online....

TORY SNUB - Simon Collyer the founder of the ABC was asked in an email would he like to contribute to Tory Party funds as the election looms early December. Simon seized the moment and asked could the ABC be added to the Conservative Party press rele...

UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT - A PIP assessor working for Capita allegedly challenged a claimant’s son to a fight, damaged her home and laughed at her account of wanting to end her life. Cheryl Matthews from Cardiff told the assessor that she had been in s...

STAYING WARM - The Affordable Warmth Obligation is designed to help people on low incomes and in receipt of benefits to carry out energy-saving work. However, landlords may also be able to make use of the scheme if a private tenant is in re...

UNIVERSAL CREDIT - claimants in Islington Council have accumulated nearly four times the rent arrears as people on Housing Benefit. As of September 30, 3,176 council tenants were on Universal Credit and, of these, 72 per cent (2,285) were in rent arr...

The UK's net public sector borrowing is up £7.4bn for the financial year, totalling over £40bn for April to September. The country's public debt grew as an absolute figure, but fell by 1.2 per cent as a proportion of GDP. John Hawksworth from PwC com...

DWP  -The five-week wait for the first Universal Credit payment is often why people say they are forced to exchange sex to meet their survival needs, MPs have warned. An inquiry by the Commons Work and Pensions Committee found that the wait for...

COPENHAGEN - The main suspect in a major Danish fraud case involving millions of euros (dollars) in welfare funds has fallen ill on the first day of her trial, which continued without her. Prosecutors accuse Britta Nielsen of stealing nearly 117 mill...