benefits

The Future State of Welfare

Did anyone catch 'The future state of welfare' with John Humphrys last night?

You can watch it on iplayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016ltsh/The_Future_State_of_Welfar...

I thought this was a well balanced report, that showed that there is no silver bullet to curing the UK's ailing benefits system.

Citizens Advice reports an increase in enquiries – particularly concerning urgent debt advice and disability benefits

Between April and June 2010, Citizens Advice Bureaux across England and Wales dealt with 6% more benefits problems than they did in the same period last year. 

Figures released today show that from April to June this year, the overall rise in welfare benefits enquiries was mainly due to large increases in requests for advice on sickness and disability related benefits:

Lord Freud on the high costs of welfare

In an interview with Channel 4 News, Lord David Freud, minster for welfare reform discussed the high costs of the welfare system:

 "The direct cost of our welfare system will shock you. There is fraud and error in excess every year of £5bn. We disregard nearly a billion and it actually costs £2.5bn to administer.

Britain’s benefits system is producing useless men

According to Camilla Cavendish,the benefits system has produced a generation of men incapable of finding work or a wife. Writing in the Times, she criticises the huge potential for ‘fraud’ and ‘foulplay’ within a system that has created an army of ‘unemployed, unmarriageable and unconfident men’.  The women do not want them, she argues, because they can raise families on benefits without their help.  Controversial?

Benefits sanctions: do they hit your bottom line?

Jazani’s post linking to the Tory election poster promoting/ threatening a crackdown on benefit recipients got me thinking about providers and benefit sanctions.