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Caerphilly Council are calling for the UK Government to reconsider relocating the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) office from Caerphilly town centre. The Council say they appreciate that the DWP, like local government, are seeking to make changes to their operations in response to ever increasing financial pressures placed on them from austerity measures imposed by central Government, relocating 225 jobs out of Caerphilly town could have real implications on the sustainability of the town centre.

It was agreed that we would write to the UK Government to request they reconsider their decision.

Should you need it:

Jobcentre Plus

Caerphilly Castle, Castle Street

Caerphilly 

CF83 1JD

Wales

ABC Comment: Should Caerphilly keep its Jobcentre?

House of Commons

Tuesday 12 June 2018 Meeting starts at 11.30am

Oral questions: Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (including Topical Questions)

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (England)

Fiona Bruce MP (Congleton, Conservative)

Consideration of Lords amendments: European Union (Withdrawal) Bill - Day 1

Adjournment: Long-term support for victims of sexual exploitation in Newcastle

Chi Onwurah MP (Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Labour)

ABC Note: Have your say below

We are proud to say that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization have added us to their press release list today.

We are very proud to have that association and we are going to be bringing you all the latest and best in news from around the globe.

Food security is a major issue for those on low incomes. This is an important association to have.

ABC Note: At the ABC we are a trusted source of information for a global community managing on low incomes, state pensions or state benefits. We value these stategic relationships in our quest to inform, educate and inspire those trying to improve their circumstances. 

Please add your comment below: 

Responding to reports that Poundworld has entered administration, Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable said: 

“Poundworld’s administration is part of a worrying trend on Britain’s high streets, following the administrations of Toys r Us and Maplin, as well as House of Fraser’s woes. 

“The Government has got to get to grips with helping our struggling high streets, including a strategy that deals with the rise of online shopping and substantially reforming business rates, which has been long promised but not delivered.” 

ABC Comment: Poundworld's product range consists of over 6,000 items including groceries, health and beauty, toiletries, cleaning products and pet care, some of them known brands it has over 350 stores in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and it was planning to open 150 new stores within three years.

Poundworld is not to be confused with rival Poundland. 

Image: Poundworld

Economic data released today shows that manufacturing output fell 1.4% in April, the biggest month-on-month decline since October 2012.  Office for National Statistics data also showed that wider industrial output fell by 0.8% in April. The construction sector declined by 3.4% in the first three months of 2018. The construction squeeze is the biggest quarterly decline since 2012.

ABC Note: Do have your say below:

In April 2018, Ames, Iowa, had the lowest unemployment rate, 1.5 percent. Yuma, Arizona, had the highest unemployment rate, 15.7 percent. Eighty-eight areas had jobless rates of less than 3.0 percent and three areas had rates of at least 10.0 percent.

A total of 204 metropolitan areas had April jobless rates below the U.S. rate of 3.7 percent, 167 areas had rates above it, and 17 areas had rates equal to that of the nation. In addition to Ames, Iowa, other areas with low unemployment rates include Iowa City, Iowa; Madison, Wisconsin; and Urban Honolulu, Hawaii, (1.9 percent each). After Yuma, Arizona, El Centro, California (14.4 percent), Ocean City, New Jersey (10.1 percent), and Visalia-Porterville, California (9.2 percent), had the highest unemployment rates in April.

ABC Note: U.S. job openings reached a https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osec/osec20180605">record high of 6.7 million, and – for the first time – the number of job openings exceeds the number of job seekers.

Image: Courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics

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In San Francisco, entrepreneurs are proving that technology can be a force for social good. A small group has its sights on the homeless community and is building innovative tech to connect people with basic services.

San Francisco homelessness is on the rise. With an estimated 6,500 people living without adequate shelter, most locals have grown accustomed to seeing and interacting with homeless folks as part of life in this city.

Rose Broome and mobile developer Zac Witte created an iPhone app called HandUp that helps you donate to homeless people living in shelters and outdoors in your neighborhood.

ABC Note: Are you a nonprofit interested in launching a fundraising campaign? You can lean more here: Learn more here.

You can add your comment below. 

Hunger doesn’t take a break for the summer say Food Bank Canada. Summer holidays put additional financial pressure on many families. Food Banks Canada, estimate that 900,000 Canadians will access a food bank in July and August.

Donations are at their lowest during the summer months, so food banks across Canada need extra support. Food Bank Canada are able to provide 3 meals for every $1 they raise, but they still need to provide 26,000,000 meals to ensure there is food available to all Canadians visiting a food bank in July and August.

You can help us make this possible they say.

You can donate here:

This week marks 500 days of American greatness under the Trump presidency according to Donald Trump.

To keep track of President Trump’s many accomplishments and overcome the distortions of the fake news media he says, Trump has created PromisesKept.com to deliver the true and complete list of his achievements. Will that include upsetting just about everybody we ask...?

However, there was a new President in the White House Saturday 9th, when ABC founder, Simon Collyer was invited to occupy the hot-seat at a book promotion in Sainsbury’s, Tolgate, Colchester.

Simon even briefly had his own presidential bodyguard who looked a bit like one of those guys in the Matrix. We should have looked in the President’s desk draws. Would there be a book on what to do if a Nuclear war starts, a file on Hillary Clinton or a box of tissues, or the ABC website details should Trump need a career change?

It was all in good fun. Penguin books were doing in a promo in Sainsbury's. A new book ‘The President is Missing’ authored by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. We had great fun talking to the promotional crew including the lovely Laura Gawod. If they send us a list of other dates/locations their roadshow will be attending, we will happily publish them.

We have to say that most shoppers seemed more intent on their shopping. A snub to the political class perhaps, that assumes the world revolves around them.

Perhaps a book ‘The President Won’t Be Missed’ might have more potential?

Image: ABC Founder takes over the hot seat at the ‘The President is Missing’ book promotion. 

ABC Note: Although the ABC was designed for a European Audience we are now publishing more international news and that includes the USA. The USA economy is a barometer for the world economy and we are very excited about these developments. 

This is an issue that needs looking into. Santander authorizes a payment to Iceland for a person on benefits. Iceland only draws the money on the day they deliver, in this case the order was placed just after midnight Thursday 8^th. They could not deliver till Saturday morning. Icelands terms are tucked away in their terms and conditions. 

Santander does not set the money aside, and when Iceland takes the payment the money is not there even though, the person is over £100 in credit with purchases that will not show till Monday/Tuesday next week.

Surely there must be a better system? Better to drive or walk to another store and have one hand on the food, the other on the money.

We have put these points to Iceland and Santander and the Financial Conduct Authority. There must be a better system. 

With Universal Credit (UC) exacerbating food poverty, losing your ‘shop’ in this way can cause real hardship.  

We will let you know more later. Have you ever lost out this way? 

ABC Note: You can comment below. 

Staff working in adult residential care and nursing homes in Wales will be eligible for free flu vaccinations through NHS community pharmacies from this winter, Health and Social Services Secretary, Vaughan Gething announced.

ABC Note: Please comment below