Latest editorial
MILLIONS of pounds set aside by the government each year to help people return to work is going unspent, Labour warned yesterday.
A Parliamentary question submitted by work and pensions select committee chairman Frank Field revealed that the “flexible support fund” underspent by £8.4 million last year — about 12 per cent of the £69.5m fund.
And the underspend for 2014-15 was even worse; at £64m it was nearly half that year’s overall budget.
Years of underfunding are eroding Scotland’s local services and deepening inequality in communities, says VINCE MILLS
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
A new report from the Citizens Advice destroys the government narrative about disabled people ‘choosing’ not to work, showing the £3,000 annual cuts will create a two-tiered system based on claim dates rather than needs, writes DYLAN MURPHY
