Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland is looking to Budget 2016 for evidence of the Prime Minister’s promised “…all-out assault on poverty.”  With relative child poverty projected to rise by 50% during this Parliament, CPAG is calling on the Chancellor to prioritise re-investment in Universal Credit to ensure work pays and a triple lock for children’s benefits  – so children have the same protection pensioners  enjoy

Speaking in advance of the budget John Dickie, Director of CPAG in Scotland, said;

“If the Prime Minister is in any way serious about an all-out assault on poverty this budget must demonstrate his commitment. This is a crucial opportunity to prioritise re-investment in Universal Credit to ensure work pays and to introduce a triple lock for children’s benefits  – so that children have the same protection pensioners  enjoy. With child poverty forecast to increase by a massive 50% by 2020 there is no time to lose.”

The outlook:

In January the Prime Minister set out his vision for “…transform[ing] the life chances of the poorest in our country and offer[ing] every child who has had a difficult start the promise of a brighter future.”

Earlier this month projections from the Institute for Fiscal Studies confirmed that we face the biggest increases in child poverty in a generation. 

 The IFS projects a 50 per cent increase in relative child poverty across the UK – from 17.0 per cent in 2014-15 to 25.7 per cent in 2020-21 – and an increase in absolute child poverty from 16.7 per cent in 2014-15 to 18.3 per cent in 2020-21. The latter will mean that over a decade, the income of families towards the bottom of the income distribution has actually gone down – something without precedent in modern times. The Resolution Foundation’s Autumn 2015 projections suggest 200,000 more children will fall into poverty in 2016/17 as a direct result of measures in the Summer Budget. The projections below are based on income before housing costs are deducted.

Universal Credit:

Universal Credit (UC) cuts which take effect next month will make it harder – not easier – for low income families to get better off by earning more, hitting the incomes of working families in much the same way as the now abandoned plans to cut the thresholds for tax credits. 

Lower personal tax allowances do little or nothing to offset the losses for the lowest paid – and are expensive.   CPAG’s research with the TUC found that much bigger reductions to child poverty could be achieved by channelling support through Universal Credit instead of raising the income tax threshold.

In a ranking of 13 options, increasing the tax threshold cost by far the most, yet came bottom of the list for its child poverty reducing potential.   Increasing the child element of Universal Credit would have the strongest impact for reducing child poverty, the research found.

The cuts to UC work allowances – the amount claimants can earn before Universal Credit starts to be withdrawn – will mean some 35,000 existing UC claimants see an overnight loss in income.  For some people, like single people without children, the work allowance – once the central plank of UC – would be removed altogether by the oncoming cut.  

For a couple with children, the work allowance (for non-renters) falls from £6400 a year to £4800. For a lone parent, it falls from £8800 to £4800 a year.  For single people, the current £1400 allowance is scrapped.  So UC starts to be withdrawn for every extra pound earned above this level, making it harder to make work pay.

Those who are migrated from a legacy benefit onto UC will receive transitional protection but this  will cease on a change of circumstances, such as stopping work or a partner leaving the household. The Resolution Foundation estimates  that the increases to the minimum wage will not directly benefit about 60 per cent of those expected to be on UC.

In January the Prime Minister described his mission as being able to tell struggling families “… “Your dreams are our dreams. We’ll support you with everything we’ve got.”  But repeated cuts to Universal Credit are undermining that vision.  Budget 2016 is the opportunity to re–invest in the Government’s  flagship benefit – to reinstate its poverty-reducing potential and ensure that low-paid working families really can work their way out of hardship.

Triple lock children’s benefits: 

Thankfully, pensioner poverty has fallen, with the poverty risk faced by pensioners halving in a decade. From 27 per cent of pensioners being in poverty (after housing costs) in 1998/99, there were 18 per cent in 2009/10, with the proportion standing at 16 per cent according to the latest figures. 

Looking forward, the IFS reports that around half of the projected fall in absolute pensioner poverty (from 14.9 per cent in 2015-16 to 10.8 per cent in 2020-21)  is accounted for by the ‘triple lock’ -  which ensures pensions either rise in line with prices, earnings, or by 2.5%, or whichever is the highest.    Relative pensioner poverty is projected to fall slightly (by 0.8%), with the triple lock clearly providing important protection.

The financial impact on families with children of below-inflation uprating  - a policy that continues into this Parliament -  has been substantial. CPAG has estimated that, over the course of the last Parliament, decisions on uprating alone caused child benefit to lose 15.5 per cent of its value (see table below).  The End Child Poverty coalition calculated that changes to uprating alone will have cost a working couple with two children earning £600 per week £513.35 in 2015 – an amount that will rise far further with the four- year benefit freeze announced in the 2015 Summer Budget. As described above, child poverty is expected to surge.  

Ahead of the U.K. budget announcement on Wednesday, Brian Norton, the CEO of Europe’s largest private student lending startup, Future Finance, called on the government to extend public subsidies to fintech businesses.

In an interview on Bloomberg’s morning TV show “Countdown” Monday, Norton said he is a big fan of the British government’s student support programs but noted that they only account for £10 billion (€12.9 billion) a year against the total of £50 billion in annual education spending.

“In our business, there is something called the professional career development loan where the government subsidizes bank lending,” Norton said. “Opening those sorts of opportunities to online lenders like ourselves would be very helpful in propelling growth away from the core banks.”

Future Finance has just completed a round of fundraising and raised £119 million from firms, including QED Investors and Blackstone Group, to expand the business and fund new loans. “We are balance sheet lenders; what we need is capital,” Norton said.

The firm lends to each student between £2,500 to £49,000 a year and already has a credit line in place with Goldman Sachs. The CEO confirmed to Bloomberg TV that of the newly raised capital, £100 million will supplement the existing credit facility, enabling more students in the U.K. to access higher education.

Meanwhile:

The lawman catches up with former Anglo Irish Bank CEO:

David Drumm was extradited Monday from the U.S. to Ireland, where he was promptly charged with 33 counts of financial fraud for his role in the failure of the Irish lender which was nationalized in 2009. In a crisis that ended its “Celtic tiger” boom, Ireland spent an equivalent of 15 percent of its GDP or €30 billion to clean up the bank.

Following the publication of the House of Common’s Work and Pensions Committee report on Communication of the State Pension Age Changes, Mhairi Black MP, who played a key role in securing the recommendation that the UK government should introduce transitional measures for women born in the 1950s and affected by increases to the state pension age, has commented:

“Tomorrow the Chancellor must look to the women born in the 1950s who have had their retirement plans shattered by rises to the state pension age.

“The UK government should commit to spending more money on transitional arrangements, but as we can guess the Chancellor's arrogance and obsession with austerity will likely prevail, the very least he can do is to take heed of the committee's recommendation and look into allowing women to draw their pensions earlier.

“These women were not given adequate time to financially plan and it is time for the Tories to swallow their pride and admit that these women have been treated horrendously at the hands of the UK government.

“The committee’s recommendation further underlines calls from the SNP for greater support for the women impacted by these changes and I pay tribute to those involved in the WASPI campaign who have fought tirelessly to bring this issue to the fore."

Ian Blackford MP, SNP spokesperson for Pensions, added:

“With tax breaks for high earners on the one hand but no support for 1950s-born women who are suffering pension inequality on the other, the Chancellor has his priorities all wrong.

 “I urge the George Osborne to take on board the recommendations of the Work and Pensions committee report and to look again at the unfairness faced by WASPI women.”

“The SNP agrees with pension equalization, but we do not support the deeply unfair manner in which these changes have been made and it is high time these women received their pensions.” 

ABC: You can find a copy of the report below:

The US economy has been doing quite well ad todays labor market figues should show if the trent is continuing.

In United States, the employment rate measures the number of people who have a job as a percentage of the working age population.

What exactly happens when someone applies for asylum in the EU? Find out the definition of an asylum seeker, what their rights and obligations are, and what the process is like. 

According to the UN Refugee Agency the terms asylum-seeker and refugee are often confused: an asylum-seeker is someone who says he or she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet been definitively evaluated. On average, about 1 million people seek asylum on an individual basis every year. In mid-2014, there were more than 1.2 million asylum-seekers.

National asylum systems are there to decide which asylum-seekers actually qualify for international protection. Those judged through proper procedures not to be refugees, nor to be in need of any other form of international protection, can be sent back to their home countries.

The efficiency of the asylum system is key. If the asylum system is both fast and fair, then people who know they are not refugees have little incentive to make a claim in the first place, thereby benefitting both the host country and the refugees for whom the system is intended.

During mass movements of refugees (usually as a result of conflicts or generalized violence as opposed to individual persecution), there is not - and never will be - a capacity to conduct individual asylum interviews for everyone who has crossed the border. Nor is it usually necessary, since in such circumstances it is generally evident why they have fled. As a result, such groups are often declared "prima facie" refugees.

This video gives a better understanding away from all the propergandar:

Live replay of the EP Plenary session - Debate with Stefan LÖFVEN, Swedish Prime Minister on the current situation in the European Union. 

Kjell Stefan Löfven born 21 July 1957) is a Swedish politician who has been the Prime Minister of Sweden since 2014 and the Leader of the Social Democrats since 2012.

Prior to becoming Prime Minister and Leader of the Social Democrats, Löfven had worked as a welder before becoming an active trade unionist. He rose to become chairman of the trade union IF Metall from 2006 until being elected Leader of the Social Democrats in 2012. 

A plenary session (with a plenary speech or plenary talk) is derived from the Latin root plenarius meaning "full" or "absolute". It usually refers to a session in a conference which is open to all (or a large number) of attendant speakers, who may each contribute prepared or ad-hoc material.

The government’s attempt to let shops trade for longer than six hours each Sunday was voted down after 26 Tory backbenchers teamed up with Labour and the SNP.

Commenting on the government defeat on Sunday Trading, SNP Deputy Leader and Economy Spokesperson Stewart Hosie MP said: "Common sense has prevailed on Sunday Trading, and the SNP has ensured Scottish workers pay will be protected.  "The SNP group agreed to vote against the proposals in the UK government’s Enterprise Bill in the House of Commons as the bill failed to protect the premium pay currently received by employees in Scotland. "While there has been Sunday Trading in Scotland for some time, employment rights associated with proposed protections to workers who choose not to work on Sundays remain reserved to the UK government under the Employment Rights Act 1996.“The SNP are supporters of Sunday trading – we think in principle it can be a good thing – but we are clear that it should not be happening on the back of often low paid shop workers in Scotland and throughout the UK.”

Connservative MP's who voted against the government

Work and Pensions Select Committee

For immediate release: 

THE FUTURE OF JOBCENTRE PLUS: NEW COMMITTEE INQUIRY

The Commons Work and Pensions Committee has launched a new inquiry into the future of Jobcentre Plus (JCP), the public employment service arm of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

A number of important changes will affect the services offered by JCP over the next few years, including:

• The full implementation of Universal Credit (UC), which, particularly once a fully-functioning digital service is developed, will be a largely online process and have implications for digital inclusion;

• More frequent interviews at the Jobcentre for unemployed claimants in the early stages of benefit claims;

• Delayed referral of long-term unemployed claimants to externally-contracted employment services (welfare-to-work) providers, meaning that JCP will support people who remain out of work for two years;

• The development of a support offer for UC claimants who are in work but on very low incomes;

• Plans for greater co-location of JCP offices with other local services such as council benefit teams and physical and mental health services, including IAPT services;

• Plans for JCP to offer advice, particularly on traineeships and apprenticeships, to 12 to 18 year old school pupils; and

• The process of devolution of employment services to combined local authorities and the devolved governments.

The Committee invites written submissions addressing one or more of the following areas:

1) The likely effects of the planned changes on claimants, including on the quality of services offered to them and the implications in relation to digital inclusion;

2) The potential implications for JCP, including in relation to:

➢ Resourcing of JCP;

➢ Jobcentre “footfall” and the configuration of JCP offices; and

➢ The development of suitable performance measures;

3) JCP’s capability to provide new, tailored services for particular groups of people, including people with mental health problems;

4) Opportunities afforded by coordination with other local services, including the NHS and schools;

5) The extent to which reforms will require cultural change within JCP, and the DWP’s capability successfully to foster this change; and

6) The opportunities and challenges for JCP presented by greater devolution of employment services to regional and national governments.

The deadline for written submissions is Friday 22 April 2016. 

Submissions should be no more than 3,000 words. 

Heidi Allen MP, Committee Member, said:

“In the brave new world of Universal Credit, the Jobcentre will become so much more than the place where people simply ‘sign on.’ I am in absolutely no doubt that UC marks the beginning of a new age in which the individual and the state are partners in the future potential of the individual, but the Jobcentre and its staff will need to undergo significant transformation. We must ensure Jobcentre Plus has the capacity and capability to change with the times, and deliver quality services which are sensitive to the increasingly varied needs of the individuals it serves.”

Craig Williams MP, Committee Member, said:

“As much as different people have different needs, so do different places. The DWP has run a pretty centralised network of Jobcentre Plus offices, for perhaps too long. We will want to consider carefully the potential opportunities for greater decentralisation of employment-related services to combined authorities and the devolved governments.”

Let us take your views forward please email us here if you have any views you would like expressed: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Plaid Cymru leader calls for Budget rethink on women’s pension changes

“Women must not lose out”: Leanne Wood Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood has written to the Chancellor calling on him to use next week’s Budget to phase in the equalisation of the state pension age, in order to ensure that no one misses out.

Leanne Wood said that changes to pension arrangements have been imposed on women without appropriate notification and that changes should be phased in. 

Meanwhile

Commenting on the increase in the number of children in Wales prescribed antidepressants, Plaid Cymru Shadow Health Minister Elin Jones said:

“We are fully aware that mental health services have been traditionally ignored and underfunded, and that waiting times for children’s mental health services are far too long. There should be no inappropriate medication of children and it is a concern to see an increase in the prescription of anti-depressants. All patients of whatever age should have access to the most appropriate treatment. Plaid Cymru wants to increase access and funding for mental health services and increase the availability of talking therapies.”

ABC Comment: and we thought it was just parents suffering due to austerity.