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Category: benefits

  • Majority of Tory and Reform voters do not back cuts to disability benefits, survey finds

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    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/08/majority-tory-reform-voters-do-not-back-cuts-disability-benefits-survey

    The British Social Attitudes report found that just 7% of respondents backed cuts to disability benefits. Photograph: Andriy Popov/Alamy

    Nearly half of respondents say spending on personal independence payments should be increased

    There is little appetite for cuts to disability benefits even among Conservative and Reform voters, and proposals to reduce spending could prove politically risky, according to an authoritative national survey.

    The British Social Attitudes (BSA) report found that while support for welfare spending as a whole had dipped sharply in recent years, just 7% of respondents backed cuts to disability benefits – and 49% said they should be increased.

    Two government-commissioned reviews – of the personal independence payment (Pip) benefit, and support for jobless youngsters – are expected imminently, amid speculation they will seek to restrict spending on disability benefits.

    The BSA report notes that any ministerial proposals to axe disability benefits would carry little support among Labour voters, of whom just 5% favoured reduced spending and 57% backed more generous spending.

    Support for spending on disabled people remained high among Tory and Reform UK voters of whom 40% supported more spending on claimants who could not work, and just 10% supported less spending.

    …

    See the original article at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/08/majority-tory-reform-voters-do-not-back-cuts-disability-benefits-survey

    Reform UK has a new target in its sights: Disabled people

  • Greens slam Burnham’s ‘free labour for Sainsburys’ con

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    https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/08/27/burnham-sainsburys

    Lambeth’s Green council leader has slammed PM Andy Burnham for his ‘free youth Labour for Sainsbury’s’ plan – which just happens to benefit one of Burnham’s major donors. Burnham went to Lambeth to launch his stunt – many say con – yet did not invite local council leader Martin Abrams.

    And Abrams pulled no punches in outlining the scale of the free workforce Burnham’s workfare scheme is handing to his billionaire donor’s company:

    Sainsbury’s: cut jobs, gain forced labour

    Sainsbury’s, according to the government’s spin, has “created 10,000 work experience opportunities for young people”. Like army recruitment, the scheme will target poor communities:

    New programme launching from October will target schools with higher levels of free school meal uptake and communities where young people face some of the biggest barriers to work

    But the young people will be paid benefits from the public purse, not wages from Sainsburys’ fat accounts – and will face ‘conditionality’ that means they will lose benefits if they don’t agree to work for nothing.

    Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, will fatten its profits even further – and have free workers to replace the 3,000 it made redundant last year while announcing an annual profit of over £1bn.

    …

    Continues at https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/08/27/burnham-sainsburys

  • Jeremy Corbyn on Andy Burnham

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  • Starmer ‘Proudest’ of Axing Two-Child Cap – After Punishing MPs for Voting to Scrap It

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    https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/17/starmer-proudest-of-axing-two-child-cap-after-punishing-mps-for-voting-to-scrap-it/

    Leon Neal/Pool via Reuters

    He suspended MPs including John McDonnell and Zarah Sultana.

    Keir Starmer has described scrapping the two-child benefit cap as his proudest moment as prime minister – despite previously suspending Labour MPs for voting for its removal. 

    Starmer was asked “What have you been most proud of as prime minister?” in an interview with Beth Rigby on Sky News on Wednesday. 

    “Lifting half a million children out of poverty by removing the two-child benefit cap,” he replied.  

    “That is something I’m proud of because that will be felt not just this year, next year, not just during the duration of this government, but for those children it will be felt for the rest of their lives.”

    However, Starmer’s boast has drawn accusations of hypocrisy from social media users, who have pointed to his previous decision to punish his own MPs for voting for the policy.   

    In July 2024 Starmer withdrew the whip from seven backbench Labour MPs for backing a Scottish National Party amendment calling for the cap to be axed.  

    The amendment was defeated by 363 votes to 103, with rebel MPs John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Apsana Begum, Imran Hussain, Ian Byrne and Zarah Sultana all suspended from the Labour party. An additional 42 Labour MPs abstained. 

    …

    Article by Tom Midlane continues at https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/17/starmer-proudest-of-axing-two-child-cap-after-punishing-mps-for-voting-to-scrap-it/

    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves - the very poorest and most vulnerable.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.
    Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage's chasing the racist bigot vote.
    Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.

  • More than a fifth of UK’s ‘austerity children’ scarred by poverty, study says

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    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/13/uk-austerity-children-scarred-poverty-study-conservatives

    Austerity policies effectively pitched hundreds of thousands more children into sustained poverty. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

    Researchers say hardship is a direct legacy of welfare benefit cuts imposed by Tory governments in recent years

    More than a fifth of all “austerity generation” British children have been scarred by poverty for at least half their childhood, a direct legacy of the welfare benefit cuts imposed by Conservative governments in recent years, research reveals.

    The proportion of children born after 2013 who spent at least six of their first 11 years of life in hardship surged after ministers froze working age benefits levels and imposed policies such as the two-child limit, it found.

    Austerity policies, which drastically shrank annual welfare spending by tens of billions a year and took thousands of pounds a year out of low-income family budgets, effectively pitched hundreds of thousands more children into sustained poverty.

    The University of Oxford study said the austerity-era growth in children exposed to poverty for most of their formative years was a “significant social problem” that would cause long-term harms to their health, education and life chances.

    The study’s co-author, Selçuk Bedük, said the post-2013 austerity cuts to welfare increased both the numbers of children experiencing poverty and the time they spent in it. As a consequence, long-term poverty was now a defining factor in the childhood of about 23% of British youngsters.

    …

    Austerity cuts masterminded by the former Tory chancellor George Osborne and the ex-welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith included the benefit cap, the bedroom tax, the two-child benefit limit, cuts to the generosity of universal credit, and years of benefit rate freezes. By 2021, they had stripped about £37bn a year from welfare spending.

    …

    Original article at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/13/uk-austerity-children-scarred-poverty-study-conservatives

    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves - the very poorest and most vulnerable.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.