The April Fool's Day welfare changes are no joke. They are a serious threat to those living in poverty in the UK. Katherine Trebeck, Research and Policy Adviser for Oxfam's UK Poverty programme, dismantles the Chancellor's claim that charities, churches and commentators are spreading "ill-informed
rubbish", showing it to be based on little more than easy fictions and broad stereotypes.
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The Coalition Government's flagship policy on raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 has proven to be both expensive and popular. Its stated purpose is to put more money in the pockets of those with low-income jobs, but will it?. Ben Morgan, Oxfam's UK Poverty Advocacy and Policy Officer, looks at what affect raising the tax threshold will actually have.
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The deep levels of economic pain and austerity that are currently felt by so many people across the UK started in 2007 with the first banking crash. Many have argued that the roots of disaster were laid well before then in a mix of lax financial regulation and unsustainable levels of public spending. However, far too little emphasis has been put on the other reason why public spending became so unsustainable; Britain's legacy of hosting...
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Last night I spoke at the Frontline Club, one of the UK's most prominent centres for media and current affairs as part of a debate on inequality and its damaging impacts across the world. The house was packed, and the stories told were worrying but propositional. Time and time again tax was returned to as one of the key solutions to stop middle and upper income countries sliding further into inequality and poverty.
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As we hang on to the vestiges of our New Year's resolutions to be more friendly and kind, I can't help feeling that this spirit is somewhat bounded and constrained. As the benefits budget takes another hit this week, it feels more and more that the welfare system is the child constantly picked on, whose unpopularity makes it easy fodder for the axe of the powerful.
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The Joseph Rowntree Foundation figures released this week, updating the state of play in poverty and social exclusion in the UK, ring all too true with the experience of people Oxfam works with every day.
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Against a backdrop of tax dodging companies who shirk the need to pay into society, the JRF's annual 'state of the nation' report looks particularly bleak. As the difficulties facing ordinary people increase, and pressure on Government funds rise, it is imperative we make our tax system as fair and efficient as possible.
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A couple of weeks ago, John Rentoul wrote We are all in this together, after all in
the Independent, about how Britain seems to have become a more equal society recently, according to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
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Chris Johnes, Director of Oxfam's UK Poverty Programme, argues that we need more honesty in our debates on UK welfare, to avoid raising tensions and stoking prejudice.
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In the UK, homelessness on the rise and the number of people relying on food parcels has doubled in the past year. Our research reveals that deep-seated inequality and draconian spending cuts are resulting in the UK's poorest being the hardest hit.
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