… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: Austerity 2

  • Ministers privately ruling out scrapping two-child benefits cap

    Spread the love

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/22/ministers-privately-ruling-out-scrapping-two-child-benefits-cap

    In a letter to Keir Starmer, Child Poverty Action Group estimated that the number of children in poverty would rise to 4.8 million by 2029 unless action was taken. Photograph: Adam Angelides/Getty Images

    Sources says government is ‘not going to find a way’ to ditch cap despite predictions that child poverty levels will soar

    Ministers are privately ruling out scrapping the two-child benefit cap despite warnings from charities that a failure to do so could result in the highest levels of child poverty since records began.

    Government sources said charities and Labour MPs who were concerned that wider benefit cuts would push more families into poverty should “read the tea leaves” over Labour’s plans.

    “If they still think we’re going to scrap the cap then they’re listening to the wrong people. We’re simply not going to find a way to do that. The cap is popular with key voters, who see it as a matter of fairness,” one source said.

    In a letter to Keir Starmer on Tuesday, groups including Barnardo’s, Save the Children UK and Citizens Advice said scrapping the two-child benefit limit would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty.

    …

    In their letter to Starmer, they said: “Scrapping the two-child limit is by far the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. It would lift 350,000 children out of poverty overnight and result in 700,000 children living in less deep poverty.

    “If it is not scrapped, the stark reality is that child poverty will be significantly higher at the end of this parliament than when the government took office, making this the first time a Labour government would leave such a legacy.”

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/22/ministers-privately-ruling-out-scrapping-two-child-benefits-cap

    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
    Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
    Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.

  • NHS cancer patients denied life-saving drugs due to Brexit costs, report finds

    Spread the love

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/apr/20/nhs-cancer-patients-denied-life-saving-drugs-due-to-brexit-costs-report-finds

    Brexit has ‘damaged the practical ability’ of doctors to offer NHS patients life-saving new drugs via international trials, according to the 54-page report. Photograph: Dmitrii Dikushin/Alamy

    Guardian Exclusive: Britons found to have ‘lost out’ while rest of Europe benefits from golden age of research and treatments

    British cancer patients are being denied life-saving drugs and trials of revolutionary treatments are being derailed by the red tape and extra costs brought on by Brexit, a leaked report warns.

    Soaring numbers are being diagnosed with the disease amid a growing and ageing population, improved diagnosis initiatives and wider public awareness – making global collaborations to find new medicines essential.

    But five years after the UK’s exit from the EU, the most comprehensive analysis of its kind concludes that while patients across Europe are benefiting from a golden age of pioneering research and novel treatments, Britons with cancer have “lost out” thanks to rising prices and red tape.

    Brexit has “damaged the practical ability” of doctors to offer NHS patients life-saving new drugs via international clinical trials, according to the 54-page report obtained by the Guardian.

    In some cases, the cost of importing new cancer drugs for Britons has nearly quadrupled as a result of post-Brexit red tape. Some trials have had shipping costs alone increase to 10 times since Brexit.

    The extra rules and costs have had a “significant negative impact” on UK cancer research, creating “new barriers” that are “holding back life-saving research” for Britons, the report says.

    …

    Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/apr/20/nhs-cancer-patients-denied-life-saving-drugs-due-to-brexit-costs-report-finds

  • Pensioner with severe learning disabilities could face eviction over care costs dispute

    Spread the love

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/21/pensioner-severe-learning-disabilities-face-eviction-care-costs-dispute

    Hugh Kirsch, 66, with his sister Oona Herzberg. Hundreds of contract disputes have erupted between cash-strapped councils and financially struggling care providers. Photograph: Oona Kirsch

    Hugh Kirsch’s case one of wave of evictions of vulnerable residents caused by crisis in adult social care funding

    A pensioner with severe learning disabilities who was a victim of one of the most notorious care home abuse scandals of recent years has been told he faces eviction over a dispute about who pays for the costs of his state-funded care.

    The family of Hugh Kirsch, 66, said they had been warned he would have to leave his supported home because the council that funds his care refused to increase fees in line with costs and his care provider could no longer afford to subsidise the price.

    The case is one of a growing wave of evictions of vulnerable residents caused by the crisis in adult social care funding in which hundreds of contract disputes erupt between cash-strapped councils and financially struggling care providers.

    Kirsch’s sister Oona Herzberg said he was “trapped in the crosshairs of funding issues that have nothing to do with him”, and urged his funder, Haringey council, to fulfil its responsibilities to meet his care needs.

    She told the Guardian: “It would be cruel and inhuman to evict Hughie. He would be traumatised after what he has been though, and so would we. He would be totally bewildered and upset, and would withdraw inside himself.”

    Kirsch, who is non-verbal and needs one-to-one care, survived a regime of abuse at his previous residential home, run by the National Autistic Society, in which he and fellow residents were repeatedly taunted, bullied and humiliated by a “gang of controlling male staff”.

    …

    Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/21/pensioner-severe-learning-disabilities-face-eviction-care-costs-dispute

    Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
    Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.

  • ‘The whole policy is wrong’: rebellion among Labour MPs grows over £5bn benefits cut

    Spread the love

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/20/the-whole-policy-is-wrong-rebellion-among-labour-mps-grows-over-5bn-benefits-cut

    ‘We are being asked to take a leap of faith. It does not make sense’: Neil Duncan-Jordan, Labour MP for Poole. Photograph: Peter Flude/The Guardian

    Dozens of MPs are angry at their party, despite frantic efforts by whips and government ministers to assuage them

    Labour MPs opposed to the government’s massive £5bn of benefit cuts say they will refuse to support legislation to implement them, even if more money is offered by ministers to alleviate child poverty in an attempt to win them over.

    Legislation will be introduced to the House of Commons in early June to allow the cuts to come into force. They will include tightening the criteria for personal independence payments (Pip) for people with disabilities, to limit the number of people who can claim it. Under the changes, people who are not able to wash the lower half of their body, for example, will no longer be able to claim Pip unless they have another limiting condition.

    A major rebellion appears to be hardening on the Labour benches rather than subsiding, despite frantic efforts by whips and government ministers to talk MPs round.

    One idea being floated as a way to win over rebels is for ministers to publish their long-awaited child poverty strategy shortly before the key Commons votes, and in it offer additional money for poor parents of children under five. Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall is understood to be examining a proposal focused on the youngest children that would cost less than the £3.6bn needed to scrap entirely the controversial two-child limit on benefit payments. It is now accepted in government that, given the state of public finances, the cap cannot be scrapped in the short term.

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/20/the-whole-policy-is-wrong-rebellion-among-labour-mps-grows-over-5bn-benefits-cut

    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
    Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so much
    Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so much
    Angela Rayner wears her "benefits in kind" donation from multi-millionaire Lord Alli.
    Angela Rayner wears her “benefits in kind” donation from multi-millionaire Lord Alli.

  • Unite says bin strike deal closer if council puts public promises in writing

    Spread the love

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unite-says-bin-strike-deal-closer-if-council-puts-public-promises-writing

    Rubbish bags are taken away on Poplar Road in Birmingham, Aril 16, 2025

    THE Unite union called out Birmingham City Council today over the ongoing bin strike negotiations, warning they would be much closer to a deal if the authority “put in writing what it is saying in public.”

    More than 350 refuse workers have been on strike since March 11 over plans to cut the vital role of waste recycling collection officer (WRCO).

    According to Unite, it will lead to 150 of its members having their pay slashed by up to £8,000 a year.

    On Monday, workers rejected the council’s latest offer. Unite said the proposal still involved substantial pay cuts and failed to address other potential wage reductions for 200 drivers.

    Birmingham City Council leader John Cotton said that the council made a “fair and reasonable offer that means that no-one has to lose any pay at all, with alternative roles offered within the service, or indeed a promotion to work as a driver.”

    He tried again to reassure the public today, telling the BBC “we’re in a position where nobody needs to be losing income.”

    But Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said they appeared to be living in a “parallel universe.”

    She said: “Yet again, John Cotton is saying one thing in public while his local officers are saying another in the negotiating room and in writing.

    “If the council puts in writing what it says in public then we would likely be much closer to a deal.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unite-says-bin-strike-deal-closer-if-council-puts-public-promises-writing