destitution

Sadiq Khan praised for rolling out free school meals for all primary pupils in London for another year

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/sadiq-khan-praised-for-rolling-out-free-school-meals-for-all-primary-pupils-in-london-for-another-year/

The move will save families up to £1,000 per child over the two-year period, according to analysis by City Hall.

The Mayor of London is being praised for rolling out free school meals for another year for primary school pupils across the city, as families grapple with the cost of living crisis with millions more pushed into poverty under Tory austerity and soaring bills.

Sadiq Khan put forward plans worth £140 million to extend universal provision of hot meals for the 2024/25 school year, after piloting the approach in state-funded primaries across the Capital from September.

The move will save families up to £1,000 per child over the two-year period, according to analysis by City Hall.

The Mayor of London said that he was ‘thrilled to extend this lifeline for another year’.

Research from the Child Poverty Action Group, shows that nationally, around 800,000 children who are living in poverty are currently missing out on free school meals, due to restrictions on eligibility.

Khan’s scheme provides lunches for every other London pupil not already covered under government funding.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/sadiq-khan-praised-for-rolling-out-free-school-meals-for-all-primary-pupils-in-london-for-another-year/

Continue ReadingSadiq Khan praised for rolling out free school meals for all primary pupils in London for another year

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

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

Revealed: Where up to a quarter of your water bill is really going

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Image of a burst water main.
Image of a burst water main.

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/12/revealed-where-up-to-a-quarter-of-your-water-bill-is-really-going/

It’s been branded ‘daylight robbery’

An investigation by the Guardian published today has revealed that staggering proportions of the public’s water bills are used to service private water firms’ debt. According to the paper’s analysis of financial data over a quarter of some water companies’ revenue goes on servicing debt.

The UK’s largest water firm, Thames Water, uses an astonishing 28 per cent of its revenue to service debt. Southern Water and South East Water both also use more than a quarter of their revenue for the same purpose.

Almost the entirety of water company revenue is made up of customer bills. As of March, the private water firms in England had racked up combined debts of more than £60 billion. Meanwhile, since privatisation of water in England in 1989, private water companies have paid out over £70 billion in dividends to shareholders.

The Guardian notes that Scottish Water, which remains publicly owned, spent just 10 per cent of its revenues financing its debt, less than all of the private water firms in England.

The revelations have led to a furious public backlash and renewed calls for England’s water to be taken back into public ownership.

Labour peer and Left Foot Forward columnist Prem Sikka branded the situation as ‘daylight robbery’, saying that money had been ‘borrowed to pay dividends, and that ‘companies want more from captive customers’.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/12/revealed-where-up-to-a-quarter-of-your-water-bill-is-really-going/

dizzy: This ridiculous situation is on the Conservatives watch …

Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
Continue ReadingRevealed: Where up to a quarter of your water bill is really going