FILM director Ken Loach backed campaigners calling for an immediate ban on benefit assessments today after a man deemed “fit for work” died in a jobcentre.
The man had been waiting for an appointment to discuss his benefit claims, having been declared “fit for work” earlier this year.
Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) called on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to shelve all personal independence payments (Pip) and employment and support allowance (ESA) assessments, after a 65-year-old man was found unconscious in a chair on Friday morning at the Llanelli jobcentre in Carmarthenshire.
As Scotland heads to the polls, the main parties offer variations on the same script, says MATT KERR
DYLAN MURPHY reports that far from helping people back into work, the sanctions regime is inflicting unnecessary trauma on working-class families
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


