Labour would introduce a "real living wage" of at least £10 an hour in 2020 if in power, shadow chancellor John McDonnell has told the party's conference.

Everyone will earn enough to live on said Mr McDonnell

Labour plans to end austerity, fight for "the best" Brexit deal and to build a "manufacturing renaissance".

A new National Living Wage, which came into force in April, requires employers to pay workers over 25 at least £7.20 an hour, rising to £9 by 2020.

Other goals stated are:

• "end the social scourge of tax avoidance" by doubling the number of HMRC staff working in this area and banning "tax-dodging companies" from winning public sector contracts
• fight for the "best possible" Brexit deal for the UK
• to ensure there are "no more (former BHS) Philip Greens"
• rewrite the Takeover Code to make sure every takeover proposal has a clear plan in place to pay workers and pensioners
• to repeal the Trade Union Act

The 2016 to 2021 Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme aims to increase the supply of new Shared Ownership and other affordable homes in England by March 2021.

The government is making available £4.7 billion of capital grant between 2016 and 2021 to deliver at least:

• 135,000 homes for Help to Buy: Shared Ownership
• 10,000 homes for Rent to Buy
• 8,000 homes for specialised housing

Funding outside London will be allocated by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) through the 2016 to 2021 Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme. A separate programme for London will be delivered by the Greater London Authority.

Bailiffs, utility firms and local councils who chase struggling parents over unpaid debts may be unwittingly inflicting real damage to children's mental health, a charity has warned.

The Children's Society (TCS) suggests an estimated 2.4 million children in England and Wales who are living in households with problem debt are at greater risk of having poor mental health than the children of debt-free parents.

TCS estimates that 23% of children in debt-ridden families, or more than 500,000 children, are unhappy with their lives.

In its report, The Damage of Debt, TCS said children in families which are trying to juggle a range of creditors who may be seeking to claw back debts at the same time notice the distress of repeated phone calls, letters or visits from bailiffs, and the fear of eviction. They may also have to live with family arguments.

Debt means that some children will not be able to socialise or take part in events like sports or school trips and may miss out on birthdays, family gatherings and holidays, according to the report.

Children also feel embarrassed for not owning things that are considered normal by their classmates. There is also guilt, anxiety and a sense of failure for not being able to help their parents deal with their debts. This can lead to lower self-confidence and self-worth, it was found.

Researchers looked at data from the Millennium Cohort Study which followed the lives of around 19,000 children born in the UK in 2000-01 along with TCS's annual well-being survey.

They looked for links between problem debt and children's mental health and levels of happiness. Interviews and focus groups with parents, children and young people with problem debt and low income backgrounds were also carried out.

TCS chief executive Matthew Reed called for these families to be given "the breathing space they need to escape the debt trap".

He said: "Families need an affordable route out that does not force them to make impossible decisions between feeding and clothing their children, and paying the bills."

A Government spokesman said: "The number of children living in workless households is at a record low, but we know financial difficulties can put pressure on the entire family, including children, so we want to do more.

"That is why the government-sponsored Money Advice Service spends £45 million a year to help people with free debt advice which helped to deliver 380,000 free face-to-face sessions.

"This is backed up by our historic £1.4 billion investment into improving children's mental health services and we are supporting schools to teach children about mental health and wellbeing."

The National Apprenticeship Service has announced that the 10th annual National Apprenticeship Week will be taking place from 6 to 10 March 2017.

The have been talking to the Skills Funding Agency and the National Careers Service and we hope to be doing more to help steer young people on a path to a successful career, providing news and information about opportunities,

Sue Husband, director of the National Apprenticeship Service has said:

‘National Apprenticeship Week is an important date in the calendar as the week brings to the forefront of everyone’s minds the importance of helping to get more people to consider becoming an apprentice, whilst we celebrate the success apprenticeships bring to business.

National Apprenticeship Week 2017 will be no different as it will raise awareness that the time is right for potential apprentices to get the skills they need for a great job, and for businesses, how they can grow their own talent whilst developing the motivated, skilled and qualified workforce they need.

The 10th year of National Apprenticeship Week will be a huge celebratory event, reinforcing that apprenticeships can deliver for all employers, no matter what size their business is.’

Themes for the National Apprenticeship Week 2017 will be announced shortly. More information on the week will be shared on Twitter (@apprenticeships), LinkedIn and on gov.uk.

We hope to track down Sue and bring you more information about the National Apprenticeship Service and what they have planned for the coming year. 

Dear Will Quince MP,

I would like to ask if you will support Early Day Motion 326, which calls on the government to ban letting agent fees in England.

Generation Rent estimates that the typical two-adult private renter household pays an average of £400 in upfront fees when they move home. 

Many agents use their market power to charge captive tenants fees far in excess of what it costs to set up a tenancy. If landlords, who are able to take their business elsewhere, paid all costs instead, agents wouldn’t be able to profiteer like this.

Fees mean that the non-refundable cost of moving is made prohibitive for many tenants. The English Housing Survey found that over a third of renters living in unsatisfactory homes couldn’t move out because of this cost. Another third said it would be a factor in their decision whether to move.

Because these fees stop people from escaping negligent landlords, they reduce the consumer power renters have in the market while doing nothing to improve properties.  

The Early Day Motion has signatures from MPs on both sides of the House, and supports a private member’s Renters’ Rights Bill which is currently in the Lords.

Please let me know if you will add your name to the motion.

Signed,

The ABC

A cross-party coalition is growing in Parliament to ban them. Make sure your MP is part of it. 

Lobby your MP -  Please just click below:

The Equinox, 22 September 2016, is the day when both the daytime and night-time are of the same length.

A true turning of the seasons which has been long interpreted to mean that the world is in balance.

Once the autumnal equinox passes, the nights begin to get longer and the temperatures will decline.

Autumn is a time to determine what is needed for the upcoming winter season. To evaluate what you are doing, and to plan ahead for the coming months. 

A decision has been taken that will ensure that approximately 300,000 households in Wales will continue to be protected from any increase in their council tax liability.

220,000 people will continue to pay no council tax at all.

When the UK Government abolished Council Tax Benefit and handed responsibility to Welsh Government for developing a replacement scheme they also passed on a funding cut of 10%.

The Welsh Government and local government have worked together to secure reductions for vulnerable and low income households. This has been supported by the £244m provided through local government settlement.  

Local authorities have been left to design their own schemes and manage the associated funding shortfall. This has resulted in over two million low-income households having to pay more of their council tax bill.  

In England low-income families in England are now paying on average £169 a year more in council tax than they would have if Council Tax Benefit were still in place.  

ABC Comment: We have just received the result of a Mandatory Reconsideration lodged by letter on the 6^th May 2016 with a reply received on the 21^st September. The matter was about a late Travel-to-Interview payment.

Either the DWP are receiving so many complaints that this accounts for a colossal backlog; or the long arduous road to get a response to DWP failings is deliberate - in order to frustrate people who, have genuine heart-felt grievances with the way that things are being run or how they have been treated.

Either way, it is time this abuse of the public, who fund the system, was stopped.  

Civil Servants contracts require them to act honestly, impartially and fairly.

Mandatory Reconsideration’s and the way the DWP manage them is contrary to this ethos. The irony is, the only people who can bring complaints against civil servants are other civil servants. Unless you want to work for the DWP in the Orkney Islands, or lose that valuable civil service pension, we suspect it might be easier to go with along with the crowd. Or are we just being cynical? 

Mandatory Reconsiderations are an abuse of the public, and while the system itself has merit, perhaps the DWP should be required to respond in the time allowed for the pubic to make a complaint, just 30 days. Or at least acknowledge complaints within a four to six week time-frame. 

We may not be quite as ‘connected’ as Stephen Fry and Lily Allen on Twitter but we are moving steadily forward on the social media front.  I would like to say hello to all those kind people connecting with us these days and retweeting. And thank you for the occasional kind words we get. It is really appreciated. 

We are looking for a talented Joomlar developer (intern) to look after our ‘bits and bytes’ following our move to Fasthost.  If you have a brain like Einstein, love Star Trek, eat Pizza and spent your teenage years locked in your bedroom programming with a picture of Bill Gates on your wall, you might be just be the 'sad git' we are looking for!! Just joking of course. A chance to use your skills for the good of mankind and if we ever make it as big as Fry and Allen, you will be on the tour bus so to speak. You might even get some wages! 

Image: Stephen FRY