PM Forced to Defend Tax Credit Cuts
The PM defends tax credit cuts as "fair" as leadership contender Boris Johnson prepares to issue a warning on welfare reform (SKY News)
David Cameron has insisted the tax credit cuts are "fair" but accepted that some families would be affected "differently".
In an interview with Sky News, the Prime Minister defended the cuts, which will see three million people notified just before Christmas that they will lose £1,500 a year from April.
Also in the News:
Tax credits cut ‘bonkers’ (The Sun)
George Osborne faces a storm of calls to rethink the “bonkers” cuts, due in April. MORE than three million lower-paid households will lose an average of £1,350 a year under planned tax credit cuts, a new Resolution Foundation report has found. To add to the insult, letters informing struggling families exactly how hard they will be hit are due to arrive just before Christmas.
Ryan Bourne on the Conservative party conference 2015: “George Osborne’s tax credit reforms are flawed and his party is beginning to realise it" (City AM)
"Having won a majority, and with Labour’s new leader polling worse than any in history, one might have expected a jubilant Conservative party conference. But scratch beneath the surface in Manchester, and there’s great concern about the recent Budget’s changes to tax credits.
"With The Sun newspaper now campaigning against the cuts (having waxed lyrical about the Budget in its aftermath), one Tory MP told me that “some MPs are only just comprehending what they voted for”.
New benefit system will create more hardship charities warn (Glasgow Evening Times)
Charities and anti-poverty campaign groups are lining up to criticise the roll out of universal credit warning it will leave families worse off. Switching benefits payments to monthly pay outs could see people run out of cash and push them into more debt it is feared. Paying cash including rent to one member of the household could leave women and children in greater hardship it is claimed.
MSPs on the Scottish Parliament Welfare Reform committee are hearing from organisations who deal with people suffering hardship and struggling to make ends meet on benefits.
£1m lottery win to help Preston families out of poverty trap (Lancashire Evening Post)
Projects to help families out of poverty and into work have been announced as part of a £1m lottery win. The Friends of Fishwick and St Matthew’s in Preston were given the cash to boost community work over the next 10 years, and residents have been given a say on where the money is most needed.
Children in poverty ‘fall a year behind peers' Edinburgh Evening News
Children growing up in poverty have fallen almost a year behind their more affluent peers by the time they start primary school, councillors will be told tomorrow.
An emergency city council report on poverty reveals that by the age of five, youngsters from poorer backgrounds can be ten months behind their classmates when it comes to problem- solving and vocabulary skills.