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French President Emmanuel Macron’s government will tackle social spending in the next wave of its reforms as weaker than expected growth puts pressure on the budget deficit, the prime minister said on Sunday.

Macron has so far largely turned a deaf ear to criticism of his reforms, with detractors dubbing him the president of the rich after cuts to taxes on capital income during his first year in office, which he said encouraged investment.

The prime minister acknowledged that the lower growth is likely to weigh on the public budget deficit, which is already under pressure from plans to make a payroll tax credit scheme permanent.

The government has been under pressure from Brussels and the International Monetary Fund to detail plans to rein in public spending.

Philippe said the government is particularly keen on reducing spending on what he described as ineffective policies such as housing or subsidised jobs.

He said that housing allowances, family welfare benefits and pension payouts would increase by only 0.3 percent in 2019 and 2020. That is far less than the 1.5 percent average inflation rate economists polled by Reuters expect next year and the 1.8 percent expected in 2020.

Meanwhile, the government would consider reducing unemployment benefits over time, Philippe said.

Philippe said that tax on overtime pay would be axed from September 2019 on top of plans do away with worker contributions to financing health and unemployment benefits while also getting rid of housing tax.

There are  plans to cut 4,500 state jobs in 2019 and more than 10,000 in 2020.

“This is going to be a real bloodbath for the state and the public services,” far-left leader Jean-Luc Melancon told reporters in response to Philippe’s comments.

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This toolkit will guide and support in getting started with age inclusion in the workplace and includes a three-step process based on Look, Listen, Act.

The population is ageing: by 2030, half of all adults in the UK will be over 50 years old. The workforce is also becoming more age-diverse, with up to five generations working alongside each other for the first time. Generations have different ways of making sense of the world, due to coming of age in different social, political, economic and technological contexts, and therefore they may have different ways of approaching problems and decisions. This diversity of thought can be leveraged for business success.

This toolkit will guide and support in getting started with age inclusion in the workplace and includes a three-step process based on Look, Listen, Act. 

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Business in the Community Age Campaign
The age partnership offer has been created to support employers to respond effectively to the ageing population and the needs of older workers, and to leverage the benefits of effective intergenerational working.
Find out more on how your organisation join Business in the Community as a partner of the age campaign >>

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Universal Credit supports you if you are on a low income or out of work. It includes a monthly payment to help with your living costs.

This site will help you understand what Universal Credit means for you. If you want to go straight to making a claim for Universal Credit visit gov.uk/universal-credit

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Summer jobs help young people gain workplace skills that will provide a great platform for their future careers.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a summer jobs campaign to make it easier for people to find summer and seasonal jobs – and for employers to fill their vacancies.

As part of the campaign, a new search tool on Find a job allows jobseekers to search for summer jobs, and for employers to highlight their vacancies. There are currently over 29,000 summer or temporary jobs available on the service.

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Up to 6,000 vulnerable people will receive rapid specialist assessments and support under new measures in the government’s rough sleeping strategy.

Backed by £100 million of funding, the strategy sets out the next steps towards achieving our aim of supporting everyone off the streets and into a home, and to end rough sleeping entirely by 2027.

Following £30 million of new funding for areas with the highest numbers of rough sleepers and the launch of the Housing First pilots, this strategy was developed across government and in conjunction with the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel which is made up of representatives from the homelessness sector and local government. It sets out a three-pillared approach:

• Prevention – understanding the issues that lead to rough sleeping and providing timely support for those at risk
• Intervention – helping those already sleeping rough with swift support tailored to their individual circumstances
• Recovery – supporting people in finding a new home and rebuilding their lives.

This system has prevention at its heart, focusing on stopping people from becoming homeless in the first place and providing them with the right support to find work and live independently.

Longer term, those sleeping rough will be rapidly housed and offered comprehensive support to ensure their specific needs are addressed so that they can move into suitable permanent accommodation at the earliest opportunity.

Communities Secretary, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, said:

It is simply unacceptable that people have to sleep on our streets and I am determined to make it a thing of the past.

Whether people are at risk of rough sleeping, already on the streets or in need of settled accommodation, we now have a solid plan to help the most vulnerable in our society.

And this is not just about putting a roof over their heads but helping them find a place to call home.

They need and deserve our support and, through our expert-backed strategy, I am confident they will get it.

Prevention

Understanding the issues that lead to rough sleeping and being able to address them before people are forced to sleep on our streets is the focus throughout this strategy. It’s clear there is not a one-size-fits-all solution and so we’ll be listening to individual groups (like LGBT people) to understand how they experience homelessness as well as working to build our understanding of the links between modern slavery and rough sleeping.

We’ll also be launching a range of new pilots to help those leaving prison find stable and sustainable accommodation and have committed new funding to intensive support for those with complex needs leaving care.

Intervention

Building on the work of the Rough Sleeping Initiative, we’re setting aside up to £17 million to fund ‘Somewhere Safe to Stay’ pilots to rapidly assess the needs of people at risk of rough sleeping and support them to get the right help. We will work locally with NHS England and Public Health England to fill gaps in health services for people sleeping rough as part of the long term plan for the health and social care. This starts with £2 million this year, and we have asked NHS England to spend up to £30 million over the next 5 years on health services for people who sleep rough.

To support this we’re also investing in training for front-line staff, including training on how to interact with those under the influence of substances like spice, identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery and domestic abuse, as well as how to effectively support LGBT people who are homeless.

We are also introducing ‘navigators’; specialists who will act as trusted confidantes and help people sleeping rough access the appropriate services and accommodation.

There’s also funding for StreetLink, supporting the public, business and communities to engage positively with people who sleep rough through an improved app.

Recovery

A stable home is an essential element in a person’s recovery from sleeping rough but it needs to go hand-in-hand with flexible support that is tailored to individual needs to help them keep it.

This includes £50 million of funding that will increase the supply of housing outside of London for people who have slept rough or those who are ready to move on from hostels or refuges and need additional support. A further £19 million of funding provides flexible support in homes provided exclusively for people with a history of sleeping rough and funding from dormant assets will provide up to £135 million, the majority of which will go to supporting innovative financing for homes for people who sleep, or are at risk of sleeping, rough.

There’s also funding to help local areas grow enterprises to support vulnerable people into accommodation, offering advice, building stronger relationships with local landlords and making efficient use of local housing supply. Further to this there will now be a homelessness expert in every Jobcentre Plus to offer advice, signpost to information and services, and provide support.

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From April to July 2018, the number of employed youth 16 to 24 years old increased by 2.0 million to 20.9 million, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This year, 55.0 percent of young people were employed in July, little changed from a year earlier. (The month of July typically is the summertime peak in youth employment.)

The unemployment rate for youth was 9.2 percent in July, also little changed from July 2017. (Because this analysis focuses on the seasonal changes in youth employment and unemployment that occur each spring and summer, the data are not seasonally adjusted.) Labor Force The youth labor force--16- to 24-year-olds working or actively looking for work--grows sharply between April and July each year. During these months, large numbers of high school and college students search for or take summer jobs, and many graduates enter the labor market to look for or begin permanent employment.

This summer, the youth labor force grew by 2.6 million, or 12.7 percent, to a total of 23.0 million in July. (See table 1.) The labor force participation rate for all youth was 60.6 percent in July, unchanged from a year earlier. (The labor force participation rate is the proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population that is working or looking and available for work.) (See table 2.) The summer labor force participation rate of youth has held fairly steady since July 2010, after trending downward for the prior two decades.

The summer youth labor force participation rate peaked at 77.5 percent in July 1989. The July 2018 labor force participation rate for 16- to 24-year-old men, at 61.1 percent, was down 1.2 percentage points over the year. The rate for young women, at 60.0 percent, rose 1.2 percentage points during the same period, reducing the gap in labor force participation between young men and women. Whites had the highest youth labor force participation rate in July 2018, at 62.8 percent. The rate was 56. 5 percent for Blacks, 43.3 percent for Asians, and 58.0 percent for Hispanics.

Over the year, the labor force participation rate rose for Hispanics (+1.4 percentage points) and declined for Asians (-4.1 points). The decline among Asians offset a similar increase (+4.3 percentage points) between July 2016 and 2017. Labor force participation rates in July 2018 for Whites and Blacks were essentially unchanged from a year earlier. Employment In July 2018, there were 20.9 million employed 16- to 24-year-olds, about the same number as the summer before. Between April and July 2018, the number of employed youth rose by 2.0 million, in line with the change between April and July 2017. The employment-population ratio for youth--the proportion of the 16- to 24-year-old civilian noninstitutional population with a job--was 55.0 percent in July 2018, little changed from the prior year. (See tables 1 and 2.) Employment-population ratios in July 2018 were higher than a year earlier for young women (54.8 percent), Whites (58.0 percent), and Hispanics (51.7 percent).

The ratios declined for young men (55.2 percent) and Asians (39.7 percent). The ratio for Blacks, at 47.2 percent in July, was about unchanged from the summer before. In July 2018, the largest percentage of employed youth worked in the leisure and hospitality industry (26 percent), which includes food services. An additional 18 percent of employed youth worked in the retail trade industry, and 11 percent worked in education and health services. (See table 3.) Unemployment Unemployment among youth rose by 567,000 from April to July 2018, compared with an increase of 458,000 for the same period in 2017. The youth unemployment rate, at 9.2 percent in July 2018, was little changed from July 2017. This represents the lowest summer youth unemployment rate since July 1966.

The number of unemployed youth was 2.1 million in July 2018, little different from a year earlier. Of the 2.1 million unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds, 1.5 million were looking for full-time work in July 2018, also little changed from July 2017. (See tables 1 and 2.) In July 2018, the unemployment rates for both young men (9.8 percent) and women (8.6 percent) were little changed from the summer before. The July 2018 rate for young Asians (8.4 percent) declined over the year, while the rates for young Whites (7.6 percent), Blacks (16.5 percent), and Hispanics (10.8 percent) showed little change over the year. (See table 2.)

Adam Rowe's Edinburgh Fring Festival joke:  “Working at the jobcentre has to be a tense job,” he pointed out to his audience. “Knowing that if you get fired, you still have to come in the next day.”

The overall cost of a child over 18 years (including rent and childcare) is £150, 753 for a couple and £183,335 for a lone parent.  But work doesn’t pay low-income families enough to meet a no-frills standard of living, new research from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) shows. (1)  

A combination of rising prices, benefits and tax credits freezes, the introduction of the benefit cap and two-child limit, the bedroom tax, cuts to housing benefits and the rolling out of Universal Credit have hit family budgets hard. Life has been getting progressively tougher for families on low or modest incomes over the past ten years, with families on in-work and out-of-work benefits hardest hit, the report warns.

Despite the introduction of the ‘national living wage’, low-paid families working full-time are still unable to earn enough to meet their families’ needs. The gains from modest increases in wages have been clawed back through the freezing of tax credits.

Even families with two parents currently working full time on the ‘national living wage’ are 11% (£49 per week) short (2) of the income the public defines as an acceptable, no-frills living standard.

The cumulative effect of cuts, frozen benefits and new punitive measures hit lone parents particularly hard. For lone parents, even a reasonably paid job (on median earnings) will leave them 15% (£56 per week) short of an adequate income because of the high cost of childcare. A lone parent working full-time on the ‘national living wage’ will be 20% (£74 per week) short of what they need to achieve a minimum standard of living. However, a lone parent relying solely on benefits will go without 40% of the budget they need for a socially acceptable minimum.

With the introduction of the two-child limit, families with three or more children fare worst – a third child born after 1 April 2017, for whom no additional support will be provided, costs around £86,500 or £4,800 a year excluding childcare.

Larger families on out-of-work benefits who avoid being hit by the two-child limit will instead be hit by the benefit cap which restricts support to £23,000 in London and £20,000 outside London regardless of family size. The impact of the benefit cap means that an out-of-work family with three children living in a privately rented home will receive just a little over a third of what they need to meet their needs, with a shortfall of around £400 per week.  (3)

The cost of a child is heavily influenced by the cost of childcare, a major strain on working low and middle-income families. Full-time childcare costs around £80,000 over the course of childhood, making up around half of the total costs of bringing up a child. For those receiving Universal Credit, 85% of childcare costs can be reimbursed but the reporting requirements are complex and because Universal Credit is paid in arrears, it is hard for parents to pay childcare fees in advance.

The new 30 free hours early years entitlement (available to parents of 3 and 4 year olds working more than 16 hours per week at the minimum wage) has helped, but parents can face difficulties finding nurseries and childminders offering this (4). In practice, low income families facing high childcare costs will often choose instead to limit their working hours – reducing family income significantly – because childcare is unaffordable.

The costs of a child are calculated according to a minimum standard of income that covers the costs of essentials such as food, clothes and shelter as well as other costs necessary to participate in society. It looks at the needs of different family types and is informed by what ordinary members of the public feel is necessary for both couples and lone parents bringing up children. “The Cost of a Child in 2018” from Loughborough University’s Donald Hirsch, is the seventh report in an annual series.

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A-Level results are out today - best of wishes to all those facing a worrying morning ahead.

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Landlords in Argyll and Bute are being offered free advice on how the transition from Housing Benefit to Universal Credit will affect them.

With support from Argyll and Bute Council’s benefit unit, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will be hosting advice sessions at the end of August to give landlords information about how tenants will manage their Universal Credit accounts and payment of rent; how to avoid rent arrears; and what can be done when arrears do occur. Sessions will take place in Lochgilphead on August 28; Dunoon on August 29; and Helensburgh on August 30. All three events will take place from 9.30am until 1pm.

The council’s policy lead for corporate services, Councillor Rory Colville said: “I would urge anyone who is unsure about the transition to attend one of the sessions.”

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