CommonSpace columnist and former welfare rights worker Neil McLeod argues that Universal Credit is the very essence of Dickensian Tory Britain, a benefit that will bring you homelessness and depression quicker than it will actually get paid
New survey shows a majority of Scottish business owners have no faith in Theresa May securing the best deal for Scotland
ONLY 8 PER CENT of Scottish business owners trust the UK Government to secure the best Brexit deal for Scotland, while 79 per cent would be in favour of a second EU referendum after the terms of Brexit are clear, a recent survey from the pro-independence think tank Business for Scotland (BFS) has revealed.
Disability rights activists claim victory over politicisation of cuts to disability payments
SCOTTISH DISABILITY RIGHTS campaigners have spoken ff their six years of "horror" trying to adapt to and combat Ian Duncan Smith's welfare reforms and have called for an end to further cuts in the aftermath of his resignation.
Pilot scheme sees food bank in Manchester staffed with job advisers from time of opening
MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South Mhairi Black has slammed Tory Minister Iain Duncan Smith over plans to place job advisers in food banks.
Black, who is the youngest MP in the House of Commons, also challenged Duncan Smith over the link between damaging welfare cuts he has pioneered and the explosion in the number of food banks since 2012.
CommonSpace columnist James McEnaney pens a message to Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith
HELLO IAIN,
You don't know me, but I've taken a keen interest in your work over the years. I didn't manage to catch your speech on Tuesday but the reaction on social media suggested that you made some characteristically callous comments about disabled people (presumably to rapturous applause).
Are "worklessness" and "family breakdown" effective indicators of poverty?
DWP SECRETARY Iain Duncan-Smith has announced plans to move away from measuring child poverty as an assessment of material disadvantage, based on income, to one based on more subjective indicators like addiction and grades.
CommonSpace takes a look at what the measurements are, why the change is being made and why it matters.
How is child poverty measured now?
"Family breakdown" and "worklessness" to be part of new measures of poverty
THE UK Government is scrapping its target of eradicating child poverty by 2020 by moving away from focusing on child poverty, an indicator of relative material disadvantage, to assessments based on non-monetary measures.
Child poverty rates will still be published by the government as a statistic but will no longer be seen as a target.
Smith's welfare sanction regime linked to rising foodbank usage
RESIDENTS in Welfare Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's parliamentary constituency have called on him to be 'sanctioned' for not turning up to his local hustings debate.
The call by angry attendees of the hustings debate mimics Smith's policy of sanctioning those on welfare benefits if they miss appointments, a policy which research has shown has a direct link with rising foodbank usage.
Jamie Szymkowiak, coordinator of One in Five, a campaign aimed at increasing the participation of people with disabilities in politics , says the lack of disabled people in countless news reports over the weekend is worrying