Latest editorial
MILLIONS of people who depend on benefits to survive were purged from the welfare roll due to Tory sanctions last year, a parliamentary report found yesterday.
Nearly 1.5 million claimants were dropped off the roll in 2015 — and the government didn’t even try to find out why, the work and pensions committee found in its damning report.
The MP found that while some missing applicants might be in jail or have moved abroad, a disturbingly high number are victims of benefit sanctions.
DYLAN MURPHY reports that far from helping people back into work, the sanctions regime is inflicting unnecessary trauma on working-class families
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
While claiming to target fraud, Labour’s snooping Bill strips benefit recipients of privacy rights and presumption of innocence, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE, warning that algorithms with up to 25 per cent error rates could wrongfully investigate and harass millions of vulnerable people