These are some welfare links we found interesting during the first week of September.
- Britain 2013: children of poor families are still left behind.Guardian, Society, Poverty. Has Britain moved on since the Born to Fail? report of the early 70’s, or has the situation got worse?
- Food bank enquiries soar as further working class famlies slide into poverty. Guardian, Society, Food banks. Savings have run out, working families and those on benefit search for help to reach their next pay check. Citizens Advice Bureau reports.
- Why the UK’s recovery lacks a feelgood factor Guardian Economic growth. A thinktank report says any upturn won’t help the workforce ‘second division’, including women and the under-30s.
- Universal credit frontline: ‘I’m left with nothing’ Guardian Kiran Singh, part-time lecturer and sole parent of nine-year-old, dreading move to streamlined payments with universal credit.
- UN sends in special rapporteur Raquel Rolnik to inspect ‘bedroom tax’. Rolnik UN investigates the legality of the bedroom tax with a mandate from the UN Human Rights Council to report back on her findings.
- Welfare cuts: A tale of two food bank vouchers. Guardian Patrick Butler’s cuts blog. Why has the newer voucher removed the reason for referral?
- Debate today at 2pm Diary of a Benefit Scrounger website. The government’s decision makes it harder to appeal if a claim for Employment Support Allowance is rejected.
- Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms ‘given mauling’ by audit. Telegraph. The Coalition’s flagship scheme to overhaul the benefits system has been savaged by an official audit, which accused ministers of attempting the huge reform without a detailed plan.
- Moral certainty is not always enough in welfare reform Telegraph. Were the only people used on this project those prepared to say what those in charge wanted to hear?
- Hard evidence: are migrants draining the welfare system?. The Conversation blog. The only thing we can say for certain is that the concept that they are “costing the taxpayer billions of pounds per year” is pure speculation and is not supported by the data.