Tag Archives: welfare reform bill

Your Say – long-term conditions call for views on Welfare in Scotland

Call for views

Your Say: Long-term Conditions

Are you affected by welfare reform?  The Welfare Reform Committee would like to hear from people with, or caring for those with, long-term conditions and get their thoughts about how welfare reform is impacting on them.

About a year ago, the Welfare Reform Committee began an initiative, ‘Your Say’, to hear directly from those who have been directly affected by welfare reform. Over the last year the Committee has heard the stories of people from Glasgow, Annan, Kirkcaldy, Dunoon, Stirling, Coatbridge, Hamilton, Dundee, Edinburgh, Biggar… the list goes on.

The benefit sanctions regime has “gone too far”, leading “to destitution, hardship and hunger

Half a million people in Britain rely on food banks

By: Information Daily Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, May 30, 2013 – 11:46 GMT

Huge cuts to welfare reform have left more than half a million people in Britain reliant on foodbanks to feed themselves or their family, a shocking report by a group of charities has revealed.

Church Action Poverty and Oxfam, with the backing of the Trussell Trust, are calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the relationship between benefit delay, error or sanctions, welfare reform changes and the growth of Britain’s ‘hidden hungry.’

“The shocking reality is that hundreds of thousands of people in the UK are turning to food aid. Cuts to social safety-nets have gone too far, leading to destitution, hardship and hunger on a large scale. It is unacceptable that this is happening in the seventh wealthiest nation on the planet,” said Mark Goldring, Oxfam’s CEO.

Counting the cost of controversial benefit reforms

Council calculates cost of welfare reform

The council is counting the cost of controversial benefit reforms brought in by Westminster.

A seven-strong team is being put in place to cope with changes that have implications of £2 million for the authority.

A sub-committee was briefed on the situation this week.