Starmer ally defends minimum wage quango after Sunak calls for it to be axed Economics Welfare secretary Pat McFadden has leapt to the defence of the minimum wage quango after former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for the body to be axed. The top ally of Sir Keir Starmer told City AM it “would be a mistake” to abolish the Low Pay Commission (LPC), an independent body that advises the [...]
UK faces ‘urgent crisis’ on workplace sickness, review says Politics The UK is facing a “quiet but urgent crisis” on workplace sickness that costs the country around seven per cent of GDP each year, a review by former John Lewis boss Sir Charlie Mayfield has found. The Keep Britain Working Review, an independent report by Mayfield for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and [...]
Taxpayers give over billions for new vehicles under Motability scheme Economics The budget for new vehicles under the Motability scheme for disabled people is higher than expenditure on school repairs across the UK, fresh analysis has indicated, in further evidence of the breakdown of the social contract. Number-crunching by the free market think tank Adam Smith Institute has shown that the scheme, which allows disabled people [...]
Labour revives Pensions Commission amid fears workers are saving too little July 21, 2025 Ministers are to resurrect the Pensions Commission amid fears that today’s workers face a greater risk of poverty in retirement than their parents. Experts have warned that people looking to retire in 2050 are on course to receive £800 per year less than current pensioners. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said 45 per [...]
Labour urged to scrap state pension triple lock July 2, 2025 The government should scrap the £145bn triple lock on the state pension and employers should automatically contribute to private pensions, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said. Labour’s election manifesto last year said it would commit to keeping the state pension, while the Conservative Party pitched a ‘triple lock plus’ pension that would increase [...]
Labour to be handed ‘spying powers’ on bank accounts in Fraud Bill April 30, 2025 Labour is facing fresh questions over its Fraud Bill, which has been slammed for handing the government “spying powers”. The legislation, which passed in the Commons on Wednesday, bulks up the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) ability to recover money directly from fraudsters’ bank accounts. The DWP pledged the reforms would deliver “the biggest [...]
Labour ministers urged to be clearer on small pension pot plans April 29, 2025 The UK government needs to be more coherent and take extra care with pension schemes before it consolidates small pension pots, a leading industry group has warned. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) last week unveiled plans to ease costs by automatically combining small pots holding less than £1,000 into one scheme. Individuals will [...]
‘Unsustainable’ sickness benefits cost UK more than defence, Lords warn January 20, 2025 The UK is spending more on “financially unsustainable” sickness benefits than defence, and “urgent” reform to the welfare system is needed to rein in costs, a group of Lords has said. In a letter to the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, the cross-party Lords Economic Affairs committee said the current benefits system penalises people [...]
Questions grow over triple-lock as number of people on state pension climbs by 220,000 November 29, 2024 According to data from DWP, 12.9m people were receiving the benefit in May 2024, a 1.7 per cent increase on the previous year.
Autumn Budget 2024: Treasury cracking down on fraud October 30, 2024 The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made fraud and error in the welfare system a priority, with a new programme aiming to save £4.3bn by the end of the decade