Welfare

Useful links for May: child poverty; risk of night shelter closure; food banks struggle to cope

Here and over the next couple of days is a round-up of news items and data sources, bridging the gap of the last few months on welfare related issues. This will become a regular post. Keep your fingers on the … Continue reading

A growing gap to meet children’s service needs – interview with Cafcass

Would we complain if councils spent £0.5m to avert another ‘Baby P’? Would we say that children’s services left our roads with pot holes if funding had to be taken from other budgets, like maintenance or roads? These are the … Continue reading

Get the data: organogram of Job Centre Plus

The Department for Work and Pensions has published data about posts in Job Centre Plus. The organogram shows the title, hierarchy and salary of positions in the company. The PDF shown above (click to see full size) is also available … Continue reading

Get the data: organogram and staff pay

The Department for Work and Pensions has published data about Senior Civil Service posts, including the title, hierarchy and salary. Information is given on a variety of sectors such as Job Centre Plus, disability, employment, welfare and Directgov. The organogram … Continue reading

DWP changes “open data” tool after Help Me Investigate raises concerns

The Department for Work and Pensions has promised a series of improvements to an online tool promoted as an example of “open data” after concerns were raised by Help Me Investigate. Stat-Xplore was one of the case studies described in … Continue reading

London’s domestic violence victims face longest wait for re-housing in 5 years

Victims of domestic violence in London are facing the longest wait for re-housing in five years, with the average household forced to remain in temporary accommodation for just over two years, writes Jess Denham. The number of women seeking re-housing … Continue reading

Number of employees on zero hour contracts doubles in 6 years

Official data shows a dramatic increase in the number of people on zero hour contracts since 2005, writes Danielle Hudspith. In the six years since then the number of people working on zero hour contracts between April and June rose from … Continue reading

Factcheck: 900,000 dropped benefit claims “rather than complete assessment”?

On Saturday a number of media outlets reported Government claims that nearly 900,000 people dropped benefit claims “rather than undergo a tough new medical test“. Reports in The Telegraph, Express, Daily Mail, MSN and Wales Online, based on a Press Association … Continue reading

The Bedroom Tax investigated in Birmingham: no place to go

Sharing a room with her four year old disabled son, Brenda*, a single mother from Ladywood, is just one of the 37,000 households in Birmingham living in congested conditions, making the West Midlands responsible for almost half of families living … Continue reading