Starmer’s bid to ease welfare cuts piles pressure on Rachel Reeves May 26, 2025 Keir Starmer has told his cabinet to jettison the two-child benefit cap, according to reports over the weekend, in a move that piles pressure on the Treasury and chancellor Rachel Reeves. The cap, which was introduced by the Conservative party a decade ago, prevents low-income families from receiving additional universal credit after the first two [...]
Is choosing not to work a rational response to economic conditions? May 2, 2025 Economic theory teaches that people will make the optimal allocation of their time between work and leisure, and if they can’t earn why bother to work? That’s a choice neither individuals, nor the country can afford, says Paul Ormerod The rise in worklessness is acknowledged across the political spectrum to be a serious problem. It [...]
Labour’s own policies undermine their ‘welfare to work’ agenda April 1, 2025 The government has made many mistakes since coming to office, but the Chancellor deserves some credit for not breaking her fiscal rules at the first opportunity. The demands from various groups (and various wings of her own party) for more borrowing or exempting certain measures from the fiscal rules were ruthlessly ignored at the Spring [...]