Welfare

Alex Neil A new delivery agency will be set up to administer social security payments worth £2.7 billion when they are devolved to Scotland, social justice secretary Alex Neil announced today.

Members of The Highland Council’s resources committee have welcomed the considerable involvement and work carried out by council staff on issues relating to welfare reform and have agreed to support the potential role of local authorities as financial assessment delivery partners for Scotland’s

David Orr Housing associations in England have delayed or cancelled plans to build new sheltered accommodation units due to proposed cuts to housing benefit.

Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Sturgeon has called on the UK government to “immediately” announce an exemption for women's refuges and other types of supported accommodation.

Alex Neil Social justice secretary Alex Neil has called for “urgent clarification” from the UK government around the proposal to restrict housing benefit for tenants in supported and women’s aid refuge accommodation.

The introduction of Universal Credit will leave millions of working families worse off but will eventually encourage more people to work, a new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said. The single payment, which combines six benefits including housing benefit into one monthly paym

Judges in the Court of Appeal have declared the so-called bedroom tax discriminatory following legal challenges made by the family of a seriously disabled teenager and by a domestic violence victim. One case was brought by “A”, a single mother whose three-bedroom council house had a panic room t

Mary Taylor The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) is calling on the UK government to urgently rethink upcoming changes to Housing Benefit which could cost the social housing sector hundreds of millions of pounds a year and put the health and wellbeing of vulnerable tenants at risk.

Iain Duncan Smith The ‘bedroom tax’ is forcing people to cut back on food and essential items while burdening them with large personal debts, an official government study has revealed.

Hugh Henry Paying the housing element of Universal Credit direct to landlords and the immediate abolition of the ‘bedroom tax’ are needed if Scotland is to create a welfare system which treats claimants with dignity and respect, MSPs have said.

Jon Sparkes At Crisis we know it is possible for homeless people to find and sustain meaningful employment, and in doing so to rebuild their lives. But new research we have published finds that the conditionality and sanctions regime instead makes it much harder for homeless people to find work.

Jon Sparkes Crisis is calling for reform of how benefit sanctions work for the most vulnerable as new research by the charity reveals how the regime is leaving people homeless, hungry and destitute and making it even harder for them to find work.

Susan McPhee Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has urged Holyrood to use new powers to create a fairer welfare system after a poll revealed over a third of benefit claimants are ‘unable to get by’ on the income they receive.

Experts have called on the UK government to review its ‘bedroom tax’ policy after a new study revealed the reform is having a serious impact on children’s ability to learn. In the first piece of research to examine the impact of the welfare policy on children and their education, academics fou

Working households on Universal Credit are set to lose an average of £1,000 in 2020, rising to £1,300 for those with children, despite the welcome reversal of the main cuts to tax credits announced in the Spending Review. New analysis by the independent think-tank the Resolution Foundation has not