David Cameron has opened discussions at the European Council about the changes he wants to see in the European Union ahead of a UK referendum on membership. This is an unprecedented step. It is the first…
The world is your oyster — you’ll need to top it up yourself.
PA/Peter Byrne
David Cameron has announced plans to reduce the annual benefits cap from £26,000 to £23,000 per year if the Conservative Party wins the general election in May. He argues that the cap saved public money…
Could job centres double up as loan providers too?
J J Ellison
If you rely on benefits, accessing a trustworthy financial system is hard. This is the case for both borrowing and for saving. While some question whether people on benefits are in a position to save at…
Control currently doing a good job for the economy.
Steve Parsons/PA Wire
The impact of immigration on Britain’s tax and welfare system is perhaps the most important economic issue in the debate over the country’s relationship with the EU and its principle of free movement…
Facebook and Apple have come under fire since it was revealed that their female employees are offered financial help for egg-freezing fertility treatment. But the offer is part of a slew of medical and…
Iain Duncan-Smith has made his feelings about benefits claimants clear: poor families are to be given pre-paid cards, loaded with payments, to make sure they spend the money on food, rather than their…
Ed Balls or Margaret Thatcher? It’s sometimes hard to tell.
Peter Byrne/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Ed Balls has kicked off the annual Labour conference in Manchester with an ill-judged announcement that his party would increase child benefits by just 1% a year until 2017 if elected to government next…
Iain Duncan Smith: hardship, despair, and destitution.
Anthony Devlin/PA
On July 5, the Daily Mail mounted yet another attack on the pesky human rights folk who have the temerity to question the coalition government’s welfare agenda. The article, headlined “The Brazil Nut strikes…
It is getting harder and harder to prove that you’re “truly British”. With immigration rarely off the front pages and UKIP making waves in election year, a national survey has shown that opinions are hardening…
Year after year, when the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey is released, newspaper headlines tell us of how our attitudes to benefits have hardened, feeding this into their wider discussions about…