More than a million families with a household income below £30,000 are in extreme debt, and ongoing wage stagnation is making the problem worse, according to a new report published today (Tuesday) by the TUC and UNISON. The report, Britain in the Red, finds that total unsecured debt (which excludes mortgages) for UK households rose by £48bn between 2012 and 2015 to reach £353bn. The report looks at how this debt is distributed, finding that millions of households are struggling with high repayment rates relative to their income: 3.2 million households are in ‘problem debt’ – defined as paying out more than 25% of their gross household income on unsecured debt repayments (3.2m is equivalent to 1 in 8 households.) 1.6 million households are in ‘extreme problem debt’ – defined as paying out more than 40% of their gross household income on unsecured debt repayments (1.6m is equivalent to 1 in 16 households.) Many low-income households are under particularly severe pressure. Of the 1.6 million households in extreme problem debt, it is estimated that 1.2 million have a household income below £30,000. For low-income households in employment, extreme problem debt is growing fast. In 2015 9% of low-income households in employment were in extreme problem debt, nearly doubling from 5% in 2014.

You could not make this up if you tried. A Claimant sanction on Universal Credit for doing an extra days work and missing a meeting at Jobcentre Plus despite sending in a Mandatory Reconsideration letter from the employer. How is the employer expected to manage if they offer staff extra work, and this has to be turned down by the worker?  

Andrew Dutton
forum member

Derbyshire Welfare Rights Service

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Total Posts: 712

Joined: 12 October 2012

Client works part-time on UC.

Gets offered an extra day’s work, which clashes with a fixed JC+ meeting. Calls JC+, explains, all seems to be well.

Sanctioned for non-attendance.

Requests MR on 8/8/16 and sends letter from employer dated 12/8/16 proving he was at work on the day in question.

MRN 14/8/16 - no change to decision, says he has not produced evidence he was at work.

Apart from the sheer haste behind the issuing of the MRN, this is a decision that places attending JC+ appointments telling you how to get work over and above…. actually working.

What…...

A letter from a frustrated ABC member

Message: As I near (the old State Pension retir't age of 65yrs) circa Jun-2017 - I find myself and no doubt thousands of others in that 'crack' of losing out as the new Pension scheme hits home. I feel that whatever scheme you come into, i.e. into the employment sphere... getting a NI no. in 1967 (in fact recall that time you had to be on a register to do a Paper-round, circa 1964). on joining the NI scheme in 1967 - I stay on that scheme to Retir't Age (during that epoch was to 65). Its a 'Contract'... of all my working life I have possibly missed no-more than 2years in my reckoning and possible less than that, although mostly on JSA. I have, as many others - K's, paid between £2 and few shillings to £320+ a month into the NI Scheme. A 'pot' that has some worth over the 50 intervening years. Okay I've had a few operations (via NHS) but that's what an 'Insurance Policy' is for, is in not. And now having paid in for 50years - there had been leaches that have 'sucked' the Lion share out of the NI Scheme... we, end of the baby boomers that filled that 'Bank' will suffer this revised 'Contract'... is it a case for my Human Rights, to say 'pay me what I'm due...' the Accrual office have done a good job for the current Gov.uk in knowing the numbers and in cutting the social fund paid out to those that 'Paid In'.

London's first community fridge is a public fridge where people can give spare food, and those who need food can take it. It's a food revolution, one fridge at a time!

It's a big fridge in the centre of Brixton where people and businesses can donate spare food, or food that would otherwise go to waste. Others can then go to the fridge to pick up what they want. There are community fridges across Spain, Germany and beyond.

People and businesses have spare, edible food. It can be hard to get that food to people who can use it. A community fridge provides a secure and open place where we can help stop food waste and food poverty. The project was started by residents, food activists, traders in Pop Brixton, market traders, a group of Londoners who hate food poverty and hate food waste.

The fridge is managed. Organizers make sure that the food in the fridge is within date and safe to eat and clean it. The fridge is open for all to contribute. If you want to get involved 

Come along to Open Project Night, on every Monday from 6.30pm at Impact Hub Brixton. It's a free space for everyone interested in Lambeth.

According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies gender wage differentials remain substantial and are a hot topic in policy debate. Inequalities between men and women are clearly of direct interest in their own right. In addition, poverty is increasingly a problem of low pay rather than lack of employment. The proportion of people in paid work is at a record high, and female employment has risen especially quickly, particularly among lone parents. Two-thirds of children in poverty now live in a household with someone in paid work. In an age when the main challenge with respect to poverty alleviation is to boost incomes for those in work, and when so many more women are in work than in the past, understanding the gender wage gap is all the more important.

Good evening to all our audience. The ABC has been off-line for a few days subject to moving to our new web hosting home. We were previously being hosted by This is Fever who developed our website but we prefered to be hosted at a dedicated web hosting site Fasthost and they can give us the attention needed.

To be frank it was not the smoothest of moves and we had no notice our website was being moved hence why we gave people no notice. I hope now we can get on and make progress building up our directory. 

We apologise to those who have missed us but hope we can catch up now and start moving forward again. 

Job listing website Monster, which was an early pioneer in e-commerce and operates the Universal Jobsmatch website, has been bought for $429m (£330m). Monster developed the Universal Jobsmatch website at a cost of over £17 million and annual running charges of £6 Million. It was initially reported that the service only really showed zero hours contracts agency posts, was biased towards promoting part-time jobs and only about 3% of the jobs advertised were actually direct from an employer.

Randstad, the world's second largest staffing company, is buying the US firm in a bid to expand its presence in America. 

Monster Worldwide, a dotcom-era survivor, also owns jobs.com and made $309m in revenue in the first half of the year.

The deal strengthens Dutch firm Randstad as it looks to take on rival employment agency Adecco, and comes just weeks after Microsoft agreed to buy networking website LinkedIn for $26bn.

No Desire to Retire have created the UK’s only free, dedicated online platform designed to release the potential of mature workers, with the capabilities and desire to work from the UK’s over 50’s, from a few hours a week to seasonal, part-time or full-time hours.

The promoters claim to have:

- Several thousand individual listings covering the UK
- Hundreds of employers now browsing the site
- National partnership with the Dept. of Work & Pensions
- A national brand footprint that is growing rapidly by the day

Steve Perry - Founder

Looking for work and 50+ this could be a good website operation to join: http://info.nodesiretoretire.com

We found this article in the Basildon and Canvey and Southend Echo Newspaper. We have yet to hear more however. 

This is the article:

A BENEFITS officer and her son have been arrested over suspicions she tampered with claims to steal money.

Police turned up on the doorstep of a home on Broomfield Mews, Pitsea, yesterday morning as part of a criminal investigation at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).The officers were joined by department investigators.

The 48-year-old woman, who is understood to work as a benefits officer, was arrested at 6.15am on suspicion of theft by employee and an offence under the Misuse of Computers Act.

 It is alleged that she gained unauthorised access to Government computers to commit further offences.

Police also arrested her son, a 20-year-old man from Basildon, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft.

They were both taken to Basildon police station for questioning while officers carried out a search of the home.

The pair remained in custody at the time the Echo went to print.

PC Marek Jaworski, from Basildon’s community policing team, carried out the arrest alongside colleague PC Jill Prophet.

He said: “The Department of Work and Pensions have carried out an internal investigation into a member of staff who was suspected of fiddling with benefit payments.

“Although it wasn’t our investigation, the reason why we were involved is because we have got the powers to arrest, search the property and seize any items of interest.

“Now that an arrest has been made, we have handed it back over to the Department for Work and Pensions and we have very limited involvement from now on.”

He said the operation, which was also attended by Basildon’s emergency response officers, went smoothly.

He said: “We arrived at the property in the early hours of the morning to ensure that the suspect would be at home.

“We knocked at the door and the woman inside was already up and let us in.

“Everybody was co-operative and we didn’t need to exercise any proper police powers.

“The only person who did make a fuss was the woman’s husband, he was not arrested.”

Article reproduced courtesy of the Echo Newspaper. 

For all you professionals; 

Digital Evolution: is Tinder Foundation’s annual conference for 2016 and will take place on Thursday 24 November at London’s BT Centre, just a stone’s throw away from St Paul’s.

This is the fifth year they have held their conference and they will be bringing together a range of community organisations, policy makers and corporate organisations working on digital inclusion activities, to talk about the huge impact that technology can have on tackling key social challenges in today’s society.