For some veterans, the benefits assessment process can be re-traumatising.
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A trauma-informed approach could be life-changing for a wide range of vulnerable claimants – not just veterans.
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The ‘skivers against strivers’ view of welfare keeps people in poverty feeling ashamed and isolated.
The pandemic has made work more precarious and wages stagnate, while the cost of living has soared.
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The extreme levels of poverty endured by economically inactive people (as highlighted in the government’s own data) are a direct result of deliberate political choices to continually erode benefits.
Asylum seekers are brought ashore after being rescued at sea by Border Force in Dover, Kent, in September 2022.
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Private tech companies are increasingly being used to delivery public funds to vulnerable people – and facilitate the government’s hostile environment policies.
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The UK benefits system does not systematically cater for the basic household needs of healthy eating and domestic energy.
Izi (Kane Robinson) and Benji (Jediaiah Bannerman) in The Kitchen.
Netflix
The film is run through with an unflinching belief in the power communities wield and the tangible limits they face.
Police negotiate with disabled rights protestors blocking the main tramline out of Birmingham New Street station in 2018.
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Progressive welfare reform would tackle disablist policies, banning sanctions and raising benefits to reflect true costs of living.
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ISAs, benefits and mortgage support are all rumoured to be mentioned in chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s next autumn statement.
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Governmental support is failing the country’s most vulnerable households. Politicians need to act now.
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It’s not always the case that poorer citizens want more public spending and richer people want less.
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The idea that people are cheating the benefits system has a long history in British society.
Calculating how the budget will affect your finances.
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To encourage the ‘economically inactive’ back to work, the government is changing pensions, childcare funding and creating more support for people with long-term illnesses.
Alvaro González | Alamy
COVID and the cost of living crisis are exacerbating the struggles informal carers face. Their labour deserves recognition.
The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has warned of more difficult decisions to come.
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Affordability is a question of political and policy priorities. If we want a fair and adequate social security system, we cannot continue cutting the resources of those who already have the least.
The growth plan will require thousands more workers on universal credit to search for more work or face sanctions.
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Requiring low-paid, part-time workers to increase their hours or take on multiple jobs can have adverse physical and mental health impacts.
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The scale of the ‘disability price tag’ means one-off payments will hardly make a dent for many households.