Category Archives: Uncategorized

Help build an interagency map across the UK

As scores of citizens battle to keep food on the table, supporting agencies try to be effective while facing more pressure due to welfare cuts.

But where are they based? From the Citizens Advice Bureau to the Trussell Trust what is in your area? To populate the map, please enter the details of an organisation you know of in the form below.

Who is doing what in your neighbourhood?

Key for map icon colours
Welfare areas: Children or Youth Red, Mental Health Green, Welfare Blue Homelessness Yellow Poverty Purple

 

 

Backs against the wall: How the bedroom tax is affecting communities

As insolvent welfare tenants stream through the Magistrates’ courts, citizens rally against the ‘bedroom tax’, using words, actions and songs. Tom Walker and HMI Welfare are gathering this together.
How is your community affected by the bedroom tax? #bedroomtax @HMIW @No_BedroomTax

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

Visualisation: Jess Denham
Visualisation: Jess Denham

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 due to domestic abuse has risen by 62% since 2008 and remained steady in recent years, suggesting that support for those struggling is still lacking.   Continue reading London’s domestic violence victims face longest wait for re-housing in 5 years

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

ESA: Work Capability Assessments
ESA: Work Capability Assessments – total vs dropped

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 story, however, fail to dig deeper into the claims.

How accurate are they? Steve Walker has looked at the data, following a pointer from Declan Gaffney, and found the pattern of ‘dropped claims’ doesn’t support the headlines. HMI Welfare has re-checked and re-presented it, along with some documentary context. Here are the key findings: Continue reading Factcheck: 900,000 dropped benefit claims “rather than complete assessment”?

Jobseekers’ complaints – how they should be handled by A4e, G4S and Ingeus {UPDATED}

Following the previous post on one A4e experience, Chris White points to a number of links on how complaints should be handled by various ‘workfare’ contractors. These are good starting points if you’re looking at what contractors actually do.

And here’s his advice: Continue reading Jobseekers’ complaints – how they should be handled by A4e, G4S and Ingeus {UPDATED}

Audio: Chris Grayling defends workfare

Here’s Chris Grayling talking on Radio 4 about the government’s work experience programs. Notably, it includes a claim at around 3’30” that his email was “hacked” and that the internet campaign against the scheme is being “organised” by the Socialist Workers Party. (A claim worth investigating).

The clarification under the recording notes that “He has since told us that it was not actually hacked but that his email address was used on a complaint lodged with Tesco.”

Grayling defends government work experience programmes (mp3)