Welfare

The UK government has announced significant changes to Universal Credit including scrapping the seven day waiting period before a person can apply. In the Autumn Budget announcement yesterday Chancellor Philip Hammond responded to the increasing pressure from MPs, charities and the housing sector by

The poorest in society are being hit the hardest by changes to tax, social security and public spending reforms, a new report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has revealed. Ahead of next week’s budget, the EHRC has published its independent report on the impact that changes to al

Jeane Freeman A Scottish Government survey of those with direct experience of the benefit system has shown that three out of five respondents rate the current UK welfare system as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

Sally Thomas The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) is calling for the UK government to act urgently on Universal Credit as the implementation of the policy is pushing tenants into debt and poverty as well as jeopardising the financial sustainability of housing associations.

Concerns have been raised that more people could lose their homes after the cost of a typical two-bed private rental property rose by 4.4% in the last year. Nationally the average rent on a two-bed property is £643 this year up from £616 in 2016 and the charity says that people will struggle to co

(from left) Melville’s chief operating officer Morag MacDonald, welfare benefits advisers Andrew Collinge and Jacque Mather, and housing services manger Sean Dickson Tenants of Melville Housing Association are better off to the tune of nearly £700,000 thanks to the hard work of an award-winning W

Derek Mackay The Scottish Government is calling on Chancellor Philip Hammond to abandon their “failed” austerity agenda and stop the rollout of Universal Credit to enable “fundamental flaws” to be fixed.

Craig Anderson with the Plain English guide Stirling District Citizens Advice Bureau has today published its new Plain English Guide to Help Sort out Benefits to help people overcome the system’s complexities.

The Trussell Trust has called for urgent action to improve the system of Universal Credit after new figures revealed a 20% rise in the use of food banks in Scotland in the last year. According to the charity, a record 76,764 three-day emergency food supply packs were given to people in need in the f

Drew Hendry An SNP MP will today host a meeting for stakeholders to share their experience of the roll-out and impact of Universal Credit (UC).

Shelter Scotland has said the latest Scottish Welfare Fund statistics from the Scottish Government show the human cost of the housing crisis and welfare reform. The latest figures cover the period from April-June 2017 and show a marked increase on the same period last year.

MPs have called on the UK government to reduce the waiting period for the first Universal Credit payment to a maximum of one month after saying that “no proper justification” has been offered for the minimum six week term currently in place. An urgent, unanimous report published by the Commons W

David Bookbinder The UK government’s U-turn on imposing the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap to supported housing and the wider social housing sector is to be welcomed but we are not out of the woods yet, says David Bookbinder.

Kate Webb Adopting a bunker mentality is flawed when credible warnings are stacking up, says Kate Webb.

The UK government has dropped proposals to impose the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap to supported housing and the wider social housing sector following widespread criticism of the policy. Due to come into force for social tenants in April 2019, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) proposals