austerity

Tory MP blasted for claiming UK’s benefits system is ‘very generous’

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/tory-mp-blasted-for-claiming-uks-benefits-system-is-very-generous/

The UK has the worst safety net for the unemployed in north-west Europe

Viewers have taken issue with a statement by Tory MP Chris Philp who claimed that the UK’s benefits system is ‘very generous’, in an interview this morning.

Speaking to Sky News on the steep rise of shoplifting, the Policing Minister was asked if he had any sympathy for people stealing for food. He argued that there was “no excuse” because the UK’s benefits system is “very generous”.  

Philp said: “We have a very generous benefits system, we’re spending well over £100 billion on working-age benefits, they went up by 10% in April this year they’ll go up by another 6 or 7%. National Minimum Wage has just gone up by around 10%. There is no excuse at all for any criminal activity, including shoplifting.”

However, people were not impressed at being told by a politician, who’s current net worth is around £3 million, that the benefits system is ‘very generous’.
One X user responded: “Here is a challenge for Chris Philp – try living on ‘generous’ UK benefits for a month and then report back.”

Another wrote: “Clearly living in his own bubble. How disconnected from reality. The rental prices, bills have risen to unmanageable levels, the benefit system is completely inadequate.”

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/tory-mp-blasted-for-claiming-uks-benefits-system-is-very-generous/

Continue ReadingTory MP blasted for claiming UK’s benefits system is ‘very generous’

First-time buyers fall to ‘lowest level in a decade’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/first-time-buyers-fall-lowest-level-decade

Woman looking at advertisements in an estate agents window, July 20, 2023

CAMPAIGNERS have blasted a lack of regulation in the housing market that leaves people trapped with no choice but to hand over their wages to landlords.

Today’s condemnation came as new figures revealed that the number of first-time buyers had plunged to its lowest level in a decade.

Figures issued by the Yorkshire Building Society showed that the number of first-time buyers in the mortgage market in 2023 stood at 290,000, shrinking by a fifth compared with 2022.

The decrease in first-time buyers followed a string of now-paused interest hikes first made by the Bank of England in December 2021, which pushed up borrowing costs, including mortgages.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/first-time-buyers-fall-lowest-level-decade

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Energy price cap rise will ‘hammer households even harder’ this year, union body warns

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/energy-price-cap-rise-will-hammer-households-even-harder-this-year-union-body-warns/

Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
Image of cash and pre-payment meter key

The leading trade union body has slammed government policy for benefiting corporate profiteering at the expense of household bills, leading renewed calls to nationalise the energy sector after the 5% energy price cap rise.

Households will be ‘hammered even harder’ in 2024 the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has said, as the Ofgem price cap rise came into effect from January 1, which will see households across the country face a 5% increase in their energy bill.

It has led to further warnings from charities about struggling households facing another cold start to the year and renewed calls for government support to help households struggling with their energy bills.

“No one should struggle to get by in one of the richest countries in the world,” said TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak.

“But 13 years of wage stagnation and cuts to social security have left millions badly exposed to sky-high bills this winter.”

With energy bills already 50% higher than two years ago, Nowak said the price cap rise will only “hammer households even harder in the coming year”.

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Warm This Winter, a coalition of 50 leading UK charities, warned of the effects the government’s inaction at tackling the energy crisis will have across services.  

“Failure to avert this cold homes crisis will lead to pressure on the NHS, a mental health catastrophe and additional winter deaths caused by living in cold damp homes,” said Fiona Waters, Warm This Winter spokesperson.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/energy-price-cap-rise-will-hammer-households-even-harder-this-year-union-body-warns/

Continue ReadingEnergy price cap rise will ‘hammer households even harder’ this year, union body warns

Unions call for end of ‘rampant profiteering’ as pre-Christmas food inflation remains at 9.2%

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-call-for-end-of-rampant-profiteering-as-pre-christmas-food-inflation-remains-at-9

Shoppers in a supermarket, October 15, 2021

UNIONS called for an end to “rampant profiteering” as official figures showed food inflation remains at a painfully high 9.2 per cent in the run-up to Christmas.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said yesterday’s larger-than-expected drop in overall inflation would not offset the real-terms fall in wages this Christmas.

She said: “Headline inflation might be slowing, but workers know their wages aren’t going as far as they did two years ago.

“Even the competition regulator now admits what Unite has said all along: that firms have been exploiting the cost-of-living crisis to raise prices excessively.

“It’s time the government and Bank of England tackled the rampant profiteering in our economy to get inflation under control.”

Responding to the figures showing CPI inflation slowing to 3.9 per cent and RPI inflation to 5.3 per cent, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak added: “Today’s inflation figures will provide scant relief for hard-pressed families. Prices are still going up — just a bit more slowly.

“Household budgets remain under immense pressure. And many families will struggle with the cost of Christmas, with food and energy bills sky high.”

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-call-for-end-of-rampant-profiteering-as-pre-christmas-food-inflation-remains-at-9

Continue ReadingUnions call for end of ‘rampant profiteering’ as pre-Christmas food inflation remains at 9.2%

Homeless people urinated on and attacked with bricks, shocking survey shows

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/homeless-people-urinated-and-attacked-bricks-shocking-survey-shows

Person sleeping rough in a doorway, February 7, 2017

SHOCKING levels of violence and abuse are being faced by homeless people, a new survey finds.

Rough sleepers are frequently attacked, urinated on, verbally abused and have bricks and beer cans thrown at them, according to homelessness charity Crisis.

The charity spoke to 156 people in late summer who had rough sleeping experience within the last two years.

It found that 90 per cent of them had experienced some form of violence or abuse and 51 per cent had been physically attacked.

Three-quarters cruelly had items stolen, while 72 per cent had suffered verbal abuse or harassment.

More than half (53 per cent) had something thrown at them, examples given included bricks and beer cans.

More than a quarter had been racially abused, harassed or attacked (27 per cent), while almost a fifth (18 per cent) had been urinated on.

Nine of those who responded said they had been sexually assaulted.

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/homeless-people-urinated-and-attacked-bricks-shocking-survey-shows

Continue ReadingHomeless people urinated on and attacked with bricks, shocking survey shows