Heartless benefit cuts driven by the media
The Independent has published "the 11 most senseless benefit sanction decisions known to man" and the list of heartless decisions to axe claimants' benefits is truly shocking. From a man who was deemed to have failed to complete an Employment and Support Allowance assessment due to suffering a heart attack during at the job centre, to someone who had his benefits stopped for selling poppies in aid of soldiers, the sad and sorry catalogue of ...
Has George Osborne already ditched Equality Impact Assessments?
Has George Osborne forgotten to do an Equality Impact Assessment on his budget again? (more…)
Starving kids – another indictment of Dickensian Britain
Over a million children in poverty are not getting free school meals with a survey revealing that three quarters of teachers have experienced kids coming into school without a meal or any money to pay for one. Today's report by the Children’s Society is a sad indictment on austerity Britain and the extent to which many thousands of families and young children have been driven below the breadline. (more…)
Osborne’s autumn statement shows failure of economic policy. Food kitchens for the poor demonstrates human cost.
Last week I blogged about the case of Mark and Helen Mullins (1,000 suicides: victims of a failing economic strategy) who committed suicide together after being ground down by poverty including making 12 mile round trips on foot to collect vegetables from a soup kitchen to avoid starvation. Today the Daily Mirror reports that some desperate families are driven by hunger to trudge 20 miles on foot to get to food banks. It's a heartbreaking ...
1,000 suicides: victims of a failing economic strategy
The economic depression could be to blame for over 1,000 suicides in England, according to the British Medical Journal. With predictions the recession- which has lasted four years already - could drag on for another decade and include an unprecedented triple dip how many more lives will end prematurely before the UK recovers? (more…)