Latest Articles By Simon Collyer

UNIVERSAL CREDIT - The first Universal Credit payments are expected around 22 April for those who applied during the first week of the stay-at-home measures.  These are the  five steps to follow to understand how Universal Credit is ca...

UNEMPLOYMENT - The ONS Labour Force Survey Figures look surreal prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. How fast the situation changed. For the three months ending February 2020, the highest employment rate estimate in the UK was in the South East (80.1%) an...

PROPERTY MARKET - Research by leading peer to peer lending platform Sourced Capital has found that the UK property market could see a double-digit rate of property value decline, with the market taking over five years to recover, while the numbe...

CITIZENS ADVICE - Household claims for Universal Credit in Scotland have increased from an average of 20,000 per month in 2019 to over 110,000 between 1 March and 7 April, highlighting the impact the pandemic is having on people’s finances. That is w...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa will increase welfare provision to help poor households suffering because of a nationwide lockdown aimed at containing the country’s coronavirus outbreak, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday. In a weekly new...

UNIVERSAL CREDIT - A lot of people claiming Universal Credit get caught out the way the system works.   Your first assessment period will start on the date that you make your claim. The assessment period will last one ca...

HELP FOR CLAIMANTS - Every Mind Matters campaign update. Public Health England have launched a new phase of their Every Mind Matters campaign, to encourage more people to take steps to improve their mental wellbeing while at home. You can access...

USA - Another 5.2 million workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, raising the total in a month of coronavirus shutdowns to more than 20 million. “It might take until mid-May or longer before we see claims declining” to much lower leve...

USA - The Social Security Administration announced today that Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients will receive automatic Economic Impact Payments directly from the Treasury Department. Treasury anticipates these automatic payments no l...

MEDIA - A Freelance journalist is looking to speak to the following: Hello, I'm a freelance journalist and I'm researching a potential feature on young people who are homeless and accessing services, and are struggling with isolation during the pande...