The Child Support Agency – which processes child maintenance payments between parents – recently closed down and was replaced by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).  Changes to how the service operates means that the parent caring for the children will either be charged a 4% collection fee (for administrative costs) for using the service or must give their bank details to the other parent directly in what is known as a “family-based” arrangement.

Survivors of domestic abuse have raised concerns about the charges for using the new CMS as in many cases they are too frightened to give their bank details to their abuser for fear that they will be able to access other personal details.

Angela Crawley MP is campaigning against the charges and along with Engender, Scottish Women’s Aid, One Parent Families, Gingerbread and the White Ribbon Campaign has written to the Prime Minister calling for the fees to be scrapped.

Angela Crawley MP, SNP spokesperson for Children, Women and Equalities, said:

“For domestic abuse victim-survivors, organising their own “family-based arrangement” with their former abuser is in most cases impossible to arrange and the only safe way of receiving the financial support they need from the other parent is by using the Child Maintenance Service.

“These unfair charges for the new CMS will disproportionately impact survivors of domestic abuse who feel they have no option but to use the service as they are too frightened to have a direct link to their abuser.

“I am very concerned that this is a cruel and callous tax on child support and that ultimately it is the children who will lose out on money intended to support them. It is the responsibility of the UK Government to do everything in its power to protect children from falling into poverty and I urge the Prime Minister to take action to ensure that maintenance is paid in full and on time.”

Emma Ritch, Executive Director of Engender, said:

“We are extremely concerned that these fees on vital child maintenance payments will act as a barrier to single parents and children in Scotland receiving the support that they need to live full and independent lives.  These charges indirectly discriminate against women and especially those who have been subject to domestic abuse - we support this call from Angela Crawley MP and call on the Prime Minister to immediately scrap the charge.”

Marsha Scott, Scottish Women's Aid

"It may be a right for women to live free from fear and abuse, but it is far from a reality. Women experiencing domestic abuse face numerous challenges in leaving abusive partners, including being financially dependent. Child maintenance is therefore critical for women's financial independence, and to ensuring that they are not subject to further abuse that current policy - albeit unwittingly - colludes with. We expect the UK Government to do everything within their power to mitigate this as a matter of urgency." 

Marion Davis, Head of Policy at One Parent Families Scotland

“Single Parents should not  have to pay to apply to the Child Maintenance Service(CMS), nor should they be charged collection fees if the CMS has to step in because the other parent has failed to pay. This is not putting children first. In particular we feel strongly that  victims-survivors of domestic abuse should be exempt from charges  to ensure that child support is paid and that parents and children are not traumatised further by having to make contact with a violent ex-partner. Children in single parent families are already twice as likely to live in poverty as those in couple families - the government should not be putting barriers in the way of children growing up in single parent families getting the support they need and we urge the Prime Minister to support the call from Angela Crawley MP  to drop the charge.”

David Bartlett, White Ribbon Campaign Chief Executive, said:

“The Campaign believes that using the Child Maintenance Service is often the only safe way for victims-survivors of domestic abuse to claim support for their child or children from the other parent.  We call on the Government to put in place a waiver for domestic abuse victim-survivors from the ongoing fees for those using the “Collect and Pay” service, which currently amount to 4% of the maintenance due for the receiving parent.  It is the responsibility of the UK Government to protect children from falling into poverty, and we urge the Government to take steps to ensure that maintenance is paid in full and on time.”

Image: Child Support Agency is (has) changed.

In his State of the Union address on 14 September 2016, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced the plan for a European Solidarity Corps.

"There are many young, socially-minded people in Europe willing to make a meaningful contribution to society and help show solidarity. We can create opportunities for them to do so … Solidarity is the glue that keeps our Union together," he said.

The aim of the European Solidarity Corps is to give 18‑30 year olds the chance to take part in a range of activities to help those impacted by challenging situations across the EU. Participation will not only benefit those providing the help but also assist national and local authorities, non-governmental organisations and companies in their efforts to cope with various challenges and crises.

Objectives

• put into practice EU values of solidarity
• help tackle challenges with society, environment and natural disasters
• enable young people to help where it is needed most

Opportunities for young people

• gain life and work experience
• learn new skills and languages
• help and support others, including society's most vulnerable

Young people will have the opportunity to get experience in confronting challenging situations – from rebuilding communities after natural disasters to helping tackle issues such as social exclusion or helping welcome and integrate refugees and migrants.

Opportunities for solidarity organisations

Organisations working in solidarity-related activities, whether a local authority, non‑governmental organisation or company, will be able to recruit young people to volunteer or carry out a work placement, internship or apprenticeship with them, provided they meet the criteria for becoming a host organisation and subscribe to the Charter of the European Solidarity Corps.

What the Commission is doing

The Commission is establishing 2 types of youth placement as part of the Solidarity Corps. 18‑30 year olds can take part for 2 to 12 months in:

• volunteer placements – offering full-time, unpaid opportunities
• occupational placements – providing traineeships, apprenticeships and jobs
• The minimum age to participate in a solidarity project is 18, but 17‑year olds may already register.

If you want to take part click on the link below:

 For more information download the attatchment below:

Helpific is an online platform that connects people with disabilities with volunteers who are ready to help them. You can join our community and post your help offer. Be the hero of your community! If you are affected in any kind of disabilities, you can post your request and they will help you to find someone in your neighbourhood.

Click here to go to their website. 

You might have seen it in the Daily Mirror: the full extent of the Department of Work and Pensions’ legal costs, incurred while fighting the obligation to name the companies who participated in the Workfare scheme.

Workfare is a government program which required the unemployed to work for one of the participating organisations, in exchange for no pay other than their existing benefits — working out lower than the minimum wage.

It’s a story in which our site WhatDoTheyKnow is strongly involved. The original request for the list of companies participating in the Workfare scheme was made on the site back in January 2012 by user Frank Zola.

That request was refused, noting that the information was “being withheld under Section 43 of the FOI Act which relates to the commercial interests of both the Department and those delivering services on our behalf”.

As any WhatDoTheyKnow user is given the means to do, Zola referred the request to the Information Commissioner. They ruled in favour of the release.

The government were unforthcoming, however, and the matter was taken to tribunal and through the court of appeal. Zola continued to pursue the case doggedly as the government repeatedly questioned the ruling that the information must be released into the public domain. Their defence was that the companies and charities listed as participating in the Workfare scheme might suffer negative effects to their reputation and commercial viability, given the strong swell of public opinion against the scheme.

In July 2016, four and a half years after the request had first been made, the full list was finally disclosed, and can be seen on WhatDoTheyKnow here.

But the story doesn’t end there. More than one person, including the Mirror’s own reporters, wondered just how much had been spent by defendants on both sides of the legal tussle. In August another user lodged this request with the DWP and discovered that their costs amounted to £92,250.

Meanwhile, a similar request to the ICO reveals that their costs in defending the case used a further £7,931 from the public purse.

We highlight this story partly because it shows the value of persistence. WhatDoTheyKnow is designed to help users to understand their rights. If your request is refused, it makes it clear that you have the right to request an internal review, making that route less intimidating to those who don’t know the ropes. If you go on to the appeals process, we hope that having all previous correspondence online helps with that. Other users can also offer help and support via the annotations system.

In this case though, we think many would have been deterred once the matter had been referred to the higher courts, and we congratulate everyone concerned for sticking to their guns and getting this information out into the public domain.

In a further twist, it’s perhaps worth relating that a few weeks ago, the supermarket Sainsbury’s contacted the WhatDoTheyKnow admin team and asked us to remove their name from the list of organisations who took part in Workfare, since “a small number of our stores did participate in the government’s Work Experience programme but this was not company policy”. We decided not to comply with this request.

Article courtesy of WhatDoTheyKnow 

The Scottish National Party has described the Department for Work and Pensions’ plan to close half the Jobcentres in Glasgow as “morally outrageous” and have raised concerns that the city is being used as the “guinea pig” for more devastating cuts across the UK.

The DWP proposals - part of the “People and Locations” programme announced in the autumn statement last year - would mean eight of the 16 Job Centre offices across Glasgow would close, impacting some 68,000 people in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit.
 
Chris Stephens MP, SNP spokesperson for Trade Unions said:
 
“This decision is simply,  morally outrageous.  It will result in the poorest communities not being serviced by a Job Centre and make it even harder for those seeking employment to get support. Thousands of people will now have to travel further at additional cost to attend their appointments.

“Approximately 68,000  people in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit in Glasgow will be impacted by these closures. Given the brutal sanctions regime this will mean that the numbers facing sanctions will undoubtedly increase.

“It will also mean that those seeking assistance from the Department for Work and Pensions will face a ‘telephone tax’ of calling expensive 0345 numbers every time they need to speak to an advisor about their claim which places the cost of Job Centre closures onto the people it should be assisting – and those already on low incomes.

“These plans make Glasgow the guinea pig, as I fear the closures announced will be used as a template for further closures across Scotland and the UK.  George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith may have gone but their ideas clearly live on in this Tory government  which simply does not want to support people into employment.

"These closures also raise the question as to how staff at the remaining Job Centres will cope with such a change in how they operate and what will happen to the staff working in the eight offices?”
 

This latest annual report from the New Policy Institute brings together the most recent data to present a comprehensive picture of poverty in the UK.

Key points

In 2014/15, there were 13.5 million people living in low-income households, 21% of the UK population. This proportion has barely changed since 2002/03.

The number of private renters in poverty has doubled over the last decade. There are now as many private renters in poverty as social renters. Rent accounts for at least a third of income for more than 70% of private renters in poverty.

The number of households accepted as homeless and the number of households in temporary accommodation have both increased for five years in a row. Evictions by landlords are near a ten‑year high.

The proportion of working-age adults in employment is at a record high. Full-time employees account for 62% of the growth in jobs since 2010. The proportion of young adults who are unemployed is the lowest since 2005.

The number of people in poverty in a working family is 55% – a record high. Four-fifths of the adults in these families are themselves working, some 3.8 million workers. Those adults that are not working are predominantly looking after children.

1.4 million children are in long-term workless households, down 280,000 in four years. Excluding lone parent families with a child under five, 55% of these children have a disabled adult in their household.

Once account is taken of the higher costs faced by those who are disabled, half of people living in poverty are either themselves disabled or are living with a disabled person in their household.

Poverty

In 2014/15, there were 13.5 million people in poverty in the UK, 21% of the population. This is not a large change from a decade earlier; in 2004/05 there were 12 million people in poverty, 21% of the population.

*The data for poverty by age is a three-year average

There have been other changes, however. There are 400,000 fewer pensioners in poverty, despite there being around 1.7 million more people aged 65 or over. There are 2 million more people in working families in poverty, now up to 7.4 million, than a decade earlier. In contrast the number in workless or retired families in poverty fell by half a million.

Of those people in poverty, 45% are not in a working family. This 45% is made up of pensioners (12%); families with disabled members (17%); lone parent families (6%); and 11% in other circumstances, such as workless single adults.

People in poverty face reduced and falling financial resilience. For example, 69% of the poorest fifth have no savings whatsoever, an increase from 58% in 2005/06.

One aspect of poverty that can be understated in the official statistics is disability. When the extra costs of disability are partially accounted for, half of all people in poverty are either disabled, or in a household with a disabled person.

Housing

Private renters are much more likely to spend at least a third of their income on housing than households in another tenure with the same amount of income:

Source: Households Below Average Incomes, DWP; the data is for 2014/15 for the UK

Failures in the housing market are a significant driver of poverty. This is primarily, but not entirely, due to costs. Housing costs are higher as a proportion of income for poorer households, and more so for renters. More than 70% of private renters in the poorest fifth spend at least a third of their income on housing, compared with under 50% in the social rented sector and 28% for those who own their own homes.

Experience of the housing market is increasingly determined by tenure. In 2010/11, the number of landlord evictions and mortgage repossessions were both around 23,000. In 2015/16, there were 37,000 landlord evictions and 3,300 mortgage repossessions. 58,000 households were accepted as homeless in 2015/16, an increase of almost 50% compared with five years earlier. The most common cause of homelessness is the end of a shorthold tenancy or rent arrears.

Households placed in temporary accommodation have also risen each year since 2011, though they remain below the levels of the mid-2000s. Three-quarters of those in temporary accommodation are from London.

Life Chances

The life chances policy area, which has been the subject of renewed interest in the last year, is mainly concerned with educational attainment and children in workless households. While the attainment gap at 16 between disadvantaged pupils and non-disadvantaged pupils has not changed in five years, there have been falls in the number of children in workless households.

960,000 children in long-term workless households are in lone parent families while 630,000 are in households with at least one disabled adult

Source: Children Living in Workless Households, ONS; the data is for 2014 for the UK

Disability and family type are significant in explaining the children still in workless households; 46% of children in workless households have at least one disabled adult in the household, and 70% are in a lone parent household. A quarter are in disabled lone parent households.

The life chances agenda also needs to reflect the importance of income. Overall 29% of children are in poverty but the rate is much higher for some groups including: those in social or private rented accommodation (52% and 46% respectively); those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi or Black ethnicity (52% and 45% respectively); and those who have two foreign-born parents (45%). Of this last group 70% are estimated to have been born in the UK.

The focus on educational attainment also needs to consider special educational needs, which is associated with both lower attainment and higher rates of school exclusion.

Social security

Increasingly the social security system does not cover the full cost of essentials for those on low incomes, such as rent and Council Tax. There are 690,000 families paying at least £200 more a year in Council Tax now than there were before Council Tax Benefit was abolished in 2013.

The government estimates that the number of families affected by the reduction in the overall benefit cap will rise from 20,000 to 112,000

Sanctions on benefits have a high opportunity cost, not only for those who are dependent on those benefits if sanctions are applied, but for the efficient use of public resources. “We acknowledge the department's effort to reduce its error rate on sanctions, but we think there is more to do in terms of reducing them further, and in reducing the notable differences in sanctions applications between comparable localities.”

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office.

There is potentially a campaign starting to stop newspapers like the Daily Mail trying to intimidate the 'BREXIT' Judges. The Appeal Court are in the process of deciding the legal merits of allowing MP's to debate how we leave the European Union by the triggering of Article 50. 

Ironically Tony Blair was heavily criticized by the press for taking us to war without seeking the approval of Parliament? Something that seems to have been forgotten?  

Freedom of speech, should not be used to intimidate Judges or our legal system. Politicians like Michael Howard should not be making statements like 'I know the judges will come to the right decision' I.e. the one that Michael Howard wants? Howard is a very experienced British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He had previously held cabinet positions in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for the Environment and Home Secretary.

This is not about which side of the argument you believe in. It is about allowing our Courts to do their job without fear of intimidation. 

It is about the right for our legal system to function without feeling threatened by the Daily Mail and its owner Rupert Murdock, or indeed any other media outlet that has a vested interest in a decision. 

Image: Politician Michael Howard 

An excellent video by Richard Woof. The Disunited Kingdom and BREXIT 

From its small beginnings as a debating society, the Cambridge Union now has over 70,000 life members worldwide. Now the oldest debating society in the world, and the largest student society in Cambridge, the Union remains a unique forum for the free exchange of ideas and the art of public debate.

In the past the Society has hosted such great figures as Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt and the current Dalai Lama, and it continues to provide Cambridge students with the opportunity to meet and question the people that shape our world, and has grown into the central forum for student discussion in Cambridge.

Policy in Practice have produced this useful information.

In April 2017:

The National Living Wage will be set at £7.50 per hour for over 25's

The taper rate of Universal Credit will be reduced to 63% from 65%

Council tenants on incomes of £40,000+ (London) or £31,000 (elsewhere) will pay market rents

In April 2019:

New social tenancies from April 2016 and all UC claimants will see the maximum
housing benefit limited to LHA rate

In April 2020:

The National Living Wage is likely to rise to £8.80 per hour