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Bringing in the new universal credit system involves significant operational risks, according to a new study.

As many as one in five workers – some 4.82 million people – are paid less than a 'living wage', according to a new analysis.

The study is published by a leading accountancy firm that supports the living wage for its own employees.

High childcare costs mean that having a full-time job is no longer worthwhile for many second earners in families on middle and low incomes, according to the Resolution think-tank.  Its report calls for a major change in the childcare system to ensure work is always worthwhile.

Some aspects of the benefits system promote 'destructive' behaviours, according to a 'controversial' speech by Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

by Nick Bailey

A new fund to help deprived people in the European Union has been proposed by the European Commission.

The best-performing European countries in terms of social and economic outcomes have one thing in common – a large and active welfare state. That's the emerging policy conclusion of a major EU-funded research project on poverty and inequality.

The average disposable income of retired households was over two and a half times higher in real terms in 2010-11 than in 1977, according to an official report. By comparison, people of working age saw their income grow just two-fold over the same period.

National economic well-being is more than 13 per cent down on its level before the global financial crisis, according to a study by the Office for National Statistics. This is a sharper fall than the 7.0 per cent drop indicated by conventional economic data.

The Northern Ireland Executive has announced it has reached agreement with the UK government over variations in the way the new universal credit will operate in the province.

As many as 24,000 families in Scotland face severe disadvantage – amounting to 4 per cent of the total population of families with children – according to a think-tank report.

The government's benefit cuts are hitting disabled people hardest of all, according to a new report drawn up by a coalition of over 90 disabled people's organisations and charities.

The government's proposed reform of the benefits system threatens the financial well-being of a significant number of social housing tenants, according to a new report.

Up to half a million disabled people and their families – including children and disabled adults living on their own – will be worse off under the government's proposed new universal credit scheme, according to an inquiry led by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.

The children's rights watchdog in Wales has published its first strategy on child poverty.

A 'worrying increase' in child poverty and social exclusion is putting at risk the well-being of children in the European Union, both now and in the future. That is one of the main conclusions of an independent review prepared for a meeting of European poverty experts.

The coalition government has announced new funding of £100 million to support 'best practice' in localised council tax benefit schemes.

A record-breaking 100,000 people have received emergency food from foodbanks in the space of just six months, according to the Trussell Trust charity. Three new foodbanks are opening every week to help meet the growing demand for emergency food.

Paying a 'living wage' has a range of potential benefits to workers, companies and the government, according to an academic study commissioned by campaigners. The study looked at the experiences of workers and companies in London where the living wage has been introduced.

The new universal credit system is likely to increase financial help for working families on low incomes more than middle-income families, especially in the case of couple families.

Changes to the tax and benefit system over the last two decades have strengthened its ability to reduce inequalities in women's lifetime income, according to a new think-tank study.

Improvements have been proposed in the way material deprivation is measured in European Union countries. The changes are designed to aid the monitoring of social objectives at both national and EU levels.

Growing income and wealth inequalities in European and other developed countries are being driven by a complex range of factors, according to researchers working on a European Commission-funded project.

Plans to cut a further £10 billion from social security spending by 2016-17 were signalled by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in his speech to the Conservative Party conference. These cuts would come on top of the £18 billion savings already announced by the government in 2010.

Most households now receive more in benefits than they pay in taxes, according to a think-tank report.

Birmingham University has announced the launch of a Policy Commission on the Distribution of Wealth. The Commission, chaired by David Urquhart (Bishop of Birmingham), will review existing knowledge about the distribution of personal wealth across different groups in society.

Almost 1.2 million low-paid workers on the new universal credit risk benefit sanctions if they fail to take steps to boost their earnings, according to think-tank estimates. The Resolution Foundation report calls the change a move into 'uncharted territory'.

Tackling child poverty must continue to be a key part of the social dimension of the 'EU 2020' strategy, according to a statement adopted by the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 4 October 2012.

Politicians should be more honest about success rates in moving unemployed people off benefits and should adopt a tougher approach, according to a report from the Policy Exchange think-tank. It also warns the situation will get worse under the government's new universal credit system.

Gender is a prime factor in explaining why some people are at risk of poverty rather than others, according to new European study. The authors adopt a gender perspective on poverty – in terms of both income poverty and poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon.

People living in unequal societies are more likely to support redistribution, but this may not always translate into political action, according to a European research project.

Most people believe the government should start controlling how benefit recipients spend their money, according to new polling data released by the Demos think-tank.

A Labour Party spokesperson has outlined the need to 'reinvent social security for modern times', and said the party intends to make savings in the benefits budget if it returns to power in 2015.

 

Over 5 million workers – one in five of the total – are in low-paid jobs, according to a think-tank analysis. Levels of low pay – defined as being below two-thirds of median (average) hourly pay – have now gone back to those last seen in the late 1960s.

In 1968/69, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded the first nationally representative survey of poverty in the UK since the foundation of the welfare state in 1948.

Welfare states have reduced the recent growth in income inequality by around two-thirds through benefit systems and social transfers, according to new study. In contrast, tax systems over the period examined actually contributed to greater inequality.

Living standards for low- and middle-income (LMI) households are predicted to be lower in 2020 than a decade earlier even if the economy recovers, according to a new analysis.

Almost half of all adults say they are dissatisfied with their current financial situation, according to a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figure compares with fewer than one in five people who say they are highly satisfied.

There is no simple link between in-work poverty and low pay in European countries, finds a study funded by the European Commission. Tackling in-work poverty is therefore not as straightforward as simply raising minimum wages, it concludes.

Intergenerational factors have the biggest influence on income poverty in 'liberal' and southern European welfare regimes, according to a study funded by the European Commission.

The number of people aged 50-59 facing social exclusion in England is rising sharply, according to a new report.

The government has begun consultation on proposals for a new way to measure fuel poverty in England, following an independent review.

Child benefits have made an important contribution to tackling child poverty among working families in Europe, according to a new study funded by the European Commission.

The damaging impact of the government's proposed cuts to social security benefits has been highlighted in evidence submitted to a Birmingham City Council inquiry.

Public support for government spending on social security benefits has declined markedly over the last decade, according to the annual British Social Attitudes Survey report. People are also more sceptical about whether benefit recipients deserve the help they get.

The government's proposed new universal credit scheme is 'heading for trouble', says a think-tank report. The scheme risks undermining its own goals by taking a 'sink or swim' approach to the challenge of benefits reform, and will leave many households struggling to cope.

Anonymous 'sources' have told the BBC Newsnight programme that the government is considering ending the automatic annual increase in benefits in line with inflation.

A rise in the share of national income taken by profits is linked to a rise in income inequality and poverty, says a new research study for the United Nations.

Poverty in the USA has fallen by 12.5 percentage points over the past 40 years, according to a new paper – contrary to official government statistics showing a rise in the number of people in poverty.

On 27 February 2012, Owen Patterson MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland debated the Welfare Reform Bill at Queen’s University, Belfast.

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