The welfare cap ties a Labour government to ‘predistribution’
The welfare cap could help focus attention on the drivers of benefit spending.
Will Horwitz
Will writes for Left Foot Forward on inequality and the benefits system; he works in the policy team of Community Links, an innovative east London charity based in Newham. Will also volunteers for The Equality Trust, and has previously worked for Oxfam on UK poverty issues.
Investing in early action is fiscally responsible as well as socially just
A government that looked at least ten years ahead would surely operate differently, investing more now and saving more later.
Counting the cost of social problems
This week the Early Action Task Force released a report calling for greater understanding of the cost of social problems.
New report warns legal aid cuts will pile pressure on MPs’ surgeries
Will Horwitz reports that MPs’ surgeries will see a dramatic surge in people seeking legal help after the legal aid cuts are introduced in April 2013.
A third of the country could lose advice vital to preventing homelessness
New analysis by Justice for All reveals housing and debt advice, received under legal aid, will not be available at all in a third of areas in England and Wales.
Growing coalition of opposition to Coalition’s £350m Legal Aid cuts
Joanna Lumley re-entered the political fray today when she unveiled a campaign calling for government to rethink their proposed cuts to legal aid, reports Will Horwitz.
Legal aid cuts will decimate advice services for the most vulnerable
Will Horwitz reports on the increase in opposition to the government’s cuts to legal aid.
Benefit fraud – PM plays to the polls whilst IDS considers the real issues
The prime minister’s blustering attack on people committing benefit fraud yesterday highlighted the growing gap between work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s increasingly nuanced line on the issue and the rest of government’s determination to milk the potential of a ‘government cracks down on benefit cheats’ headline for all it’s worth.
Cracking down on benefit fraud is counter-productive
The Conservatives have followed Labour’s lead in proposing even harsher sanctions for people accused of benefit fraud. This punitive approach is counterproductive.
Searching for consensus on how to tackle inequality
There is now a fairly substantial body of evidence showing the ill effects of income inequality on society, but not yet much consensus on what to do about it, particularly given the public’s seemingly contradictory attitude towards the issue; thattest