DWP

Winter fuel: pay-back time?

29 April 2013 | James Lloyd

Iain Duncan Smith wants wealthier pensioners to pay back their winter fuel allowances and other benefits. He’s attacking the wrong fiscal targets Read more

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Universal Credit: how do you define need?

12 February 2013 | Nigel Keohane

As the Universal Credit prepares to go live, how is the DWP going to ensure that the most vulnerable claimants get the support Lord Freud agrees they need? Read more...

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Pension reform: not so simple

15 January 2013 | James Lloyd

Simplifying the state pension is largely a good thing. But its implications for government plans to means-test other pensioner benefits may only now be dawning on ministers Read more

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Facts and fiction on welfare

3 January 2013 | Nicola Smith

Popular attitudes towards spending on welfare claimants are often based on ignorance and prejudice, fed by politicians and the media  Read more

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Universal Credit: not so simple

30 October 2012 | Dan Finn

Most people support the principle of simplification behind the new Universal Credit system. But there are multiple design faults that risk undermining that aim 

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Benefit tests that are not fit for purpose

31 July 2012 | Claudia Wood

Recent media coverage has exposed the unfairness, inhumanity and high public cost of the government’s fit-for-work tests. It is time for a rethink Read more

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Welfare reform: Cameron’s poll tax?

31 July 2012 | Ken Lee

Major changes to the welfare system could soon land the government with a serious  political headache – and local authorities with a large bill Read more

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What’s the new city deal?

2 July 2012 | John Tizard

If the government wants local government to take local leadership and deliver the new ‘city deals’, it will need the tools and resources to do the job  Read more

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Beveridge principle bites the dust

30 April 2012 | Claudia Wood

Sick and disabled claimants are about to have their contributory allowances severely capped. It marks an end to Beveridge’s concept of social insurance Read more

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Fit note fit for purpose?

3 April 2012 | Heather Rolfe

The ‘fit note’ has replaced the sick note, and employees seem to like it better. But without better guidance for employers , it could just prove to be old medicine in a new bottle  Read more

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