A report written for the Trussell Trust, the charity providing many of the UK’s Food Banks, highlights the continuing problems with the roll out of Universal Credit.
The report # Five Weeks Too Long, written for the charity by Ellie Thompson, Abby Jitendra and Sami Rabindrakaman, is based on evidence provided by several organisations working with people living in poverty. These include Centrepoint, The National Housing Federation, The Salvation Army and social housing provider The Riverside Group.
Evidence cited in the report shows that in areas where Universal Credit has been in place for at least a year there is a 30% increase in Food Bank use. After eighteen months the usage rises by 40% and after two years by 48%.
Although attempts have been made by the government to find solutions to the problems that have beset its flagship welfare reform policy. The five-week wait for new claimants before they receive their first payment continues to cause problems.
The availability of government loans to cover the shortfall in payments when moving onto Universal Credit, the report says, has only helped to push people into debt.
In a press statement Trussell Trust chief executive Emma Revie said, ‘Universal Credit should be there to anchor any of us against the tides of poverty, but the five-week wait fatally undermines this principle, pushing people into debt, homelessness and poverty’.
Hugh Owen, Director of Strategy and Public Affairs for the Riverside Group said the evidence given in the report shows rent arrears amongst their tenants had risen for Universal Credit claimants since 2015.
He said that along with the Trussell Trust they were calling on the government to ‘end the five-week wait because increasing numbers of out tenants are experiencing poverty whilst waiting for their first payment’.
Emma Revie said the government had ‘lost the opportunity to help people on low incomes in the recent spending review’, she called on prime minister Boris Johnson to ‘end this wait and help prevent more of us from being swept away by poverty’.
The report also draws attention to the impact the five-week wait for payment has on the physical and mental health of claimants.
Emma Revie concluded by saying that in a society ‘that believes in justice and compassion’, the five-week ‘just isn’t right’.
Adding that ‘it is something that can be fixed, Universal Credit was designed to have a wait, five weeks is too long, and we must change the design’.
Monday 23 September 2019
Thursday 19 September 2019
Suicides Among Young People in the UK Show Worrying Rise Says the ONS.
Figures produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show a rise in the number of people in the UK committing suicide. The increase has been particularly significant among young people with self-harm and exposure to harmful content online cited as contributing factors.
The figures are based on data from 2018 and show that 6507 people committed suicide last year, a significant rise on 2017. The majority (4093) involved males with the 45-49 age group most affected.
Suicides of people under the age of 25 rose to their highest level since 2012 with females aged between 10 and 24 most affected, with the rate rising by 83%, suicides among males of the same age also rose by 25% based of 2017 figures. In a blog post written for the ONS Ben Windsor-Shepherd, Head of Lifestyle and Risk Factor Analysis says the figures show that 'something has changed for young people'.
He adds that the statistics will be 'painful and personal for many people, behind every statistic is an individual, a family and a community devastated by their loss.
This latest demonstration of a growing alienation felt by young people in the UK follows on from the findings of a survey conducted for the Princes Trust in February, in which a significant proportion of the 2162 respondents said they did not feel life was worth living.
Speaking to the Guardian Nick Stace, UK chief executive of the Princes Trust said that young people were 'critical to the success of this country', but that they would only attain their full potential if they believed in themselves.
He added that it was 'a moral and economic imperative that employers, government and charities put the needs of young people centre stage'.
Suicide can be caused by a wide range of factors including stress, adverse past experiences and traumatic life events. The ONS statistics suggest that self-harm, levels of which among young people have risen by 13% since 2014 and harmful online experiences such as cyber-bullying may be contributing factors.
Ben Windsor-Shepherd 'while we don't know enough about why rates are increasing, there are some new challenges that may provide an explanation'.
Responding to the ONS figures Ann John, an advisor on suicide to the Welsh government said they were 'a concern and something we need to understand '.
Tom Madders, campaign director at Young Minds told the Independent they 'rang alarm bells,' he called for a strategy from government to address ' the factors fueling the crisis in young people's mental health '.
If you found this article helpful, please consider giving a small donation to the appeal for a defibrillator in Penkhull village by clicking this link: https://www.aeddonate.org.uk/projects/aed-for-penkhull-village-s1k/
The figures are based on data from 2018 and show that 6507 people committed suicide last year, a significant rise on 2017. The majority (4093) involved males with the 45-49 age group most affected.
Suicides of people under the age of 25 rose to their highest level since 2012 with females aged between 10 and 24 most affected, with the rate rising by 83%, suicides among males of the same age also rose by 25% based of 2017 figures. In a blog post written for the ONS Ben Windsor-Shepherd, Head of Lifestyle and Risk Factor Analysis says the figures show that 'something has changed for young people'.
He adds that the statistics will be 'painful and personal for many people, behind every statistic is an individual, a family and a community devastated by their loss.
This latest demonstration of a growing alienation felt by young people in the UK follows on from the findings of a survey conducted for the Princes Trust in February, in which a significant proportion of the 2162 respondents said they did not feel life was worth living.
Speaking to the Guardian Nick Stace, UK chief executive of the Princes Trust said that young people were 'critical to the success of this country', but that they would only attain their full potential if they believed in themselves.
He added that it was 'a moral and economic imperative that employers, government and charities put the needs of young people centre stage'.
Suicide can be caused by a wide range of factors including stress, adverse past experiences and traumatic life events. The ONS statistics suggest that self-harm, levels of which among young people have risen by 13% since 2014 and harmful online experiences such as cyber-bullying may be contributing factors.
Ben Windsor-Shepherd 'while we don't know enough about why rates are increasing, there are some new challenges that may provide an explanation'.
Responding to the ONS figures Ann John, an advisor on suicide to the Welsh government said they were 'a concern and something we need to understand '.
Tom Madders, campaign director at Young Minds told the Independent they 'rang alarm bells,' he called for a strategy from government to address ' the factors fueling the crisis in young people's mental health '.
If you found this article helpful, please consider giving a small donation to the appeal for a defibrillator in Penkhull village by clicking this link: https://www.aeddonate.org.uk/projects/aed-for-penkhull-village-s1k/
Friday 13 September 2019
From Caesar to Clown, the Unmaking of Boris Johnson
Has any political career fallen apart quite so quickly as that of Boris Johnson? Even if you follow the line that most end in failure sooner or later his decline is remarkable.
In early July he was installed in Downing Street following a leadership election within the Conservative Party that played out like a general election. One where Johnson was so certain of victory, he didn't bother turning up for most of the debates that whittled the field down to a race between him and then Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Even this was a slam dunk for Johnson. Pit a politician popular enough to be known to press and public alike by just his first name against one with a second name that invites the inevitable play on words and there can only ever be one winner.
Taking office in that sunny Wednesday Johnson did look, if only momentarily, like the coming man, even to those of us who never bought into his mystique.
Here was mercurial energy after three years of leaden plodding; affable spontaneity after years of dutifully over rehearsed dullness. Epic promises were made, the Minotaur of Brexit would be slain by a hero without a comb.
Spin forwards two months and those epic promises have turned into a failure of epic proportions.
In short order Boris Johnson has lost six major votes in a row and stoked the fires of a constitutional crisis by suspending parliament for five weeks. Allegedly so to allow for a Queen's speech to be prepared this was a crude tactic to stifle debate on a Brexit deal ahead of our exit date at the end of October.
As a piece of political game playing this has been the opposite of a roaring success. One of those six lost votes means that attempting to push through a no desk exit, his only hope of keeping the ERG onside, could see him in court; the other two denied him the election that might have given him a mandate.
Johnson hardly helped himself by removing the whip from twenty-one of his own MPs for voting against the government, wiping out his majority and creating a stage army on the back benches with axes to grind and nothing to lose.
He also turned in a performance at the despatch box that saw the mask of bumbling amiability slip showing a less pleasuring face underneath. Thwarted entitlement is seldom pretty to behold; on that occasion it was downright ugly.
Where did it all go wrong? How did someone who has traded on his ability to read the public mood get things so wrong and end up alienating pretty much everyone?
The fault lies, as ever, with the person at the centre of the drama; the enigma in his own imagination that is Boris Johnson.
He is a man born to good fortune, not just in the material sense, though going to Eton then Oxbridge helped to shape his view of himself as born to rule. It also gave him a contacts book to die for, allowing him to flit through careers in the media and politics taking on plum jobs and when through a mix of boredom and over confidence he messed up to step from one to the next without serious consequences.
Boris Johnson has carried this expectation through into the highest political office in the land. As when he was mayor of London his modus operandi is to racket about from one photo opportunity to the next firing off scatter gun quotes to the assembled press pack.
What he has failed to realise is that that no longer works, in the past there was always someone above to deal with the fallout from his inevitable gaffes. Now he's the grown up and had to take responsibility for a whole government a big ask for a man who has never really taken responsibility for himself.
In his shirt tenure as prime minister Boris Johnson has proved to be the exact opposite of everything we need in a leader at this difficult time.
Where we needed calm, he has brought chaos; where we needed mature capability, he has brought adolescent self-indulgence. Where the country needed healing and a period of clam; he has brought division and, maybe, disorder.
It is hardly unusual for politicians who believed in their personal destiny to lead to be tripped over by the grind of what happens to happen; few have been so rapidly and fully undone by their own failings.
In 3016 the Brexit referendum changed British politics forever, even though it is certain to be delayed until January our exit from the EU will happen. The aftermath will, if hopefully not so horrific as the reluctantly released government papers about Operation Yellowhammer suggest, will surely present huge challenges.
They will need to be met by a very different kind of leader, one who operates from a basis of pragmatism, seeking to build consensus rather than trying to force things through by the faulty magic of personal charisma.
In his short time in office Boris Johnson has proved without question that he is not the type of leader we need. Discovering who is could be the most important question of our time.
In early July he was installed in Downing Street following a leadership election within the Conservative Party that played out like a general election. One where Johnson was so certain of victory, he didn't bother turning up for most of the debates that whittled the field down to a race between him and then Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Even this was a slam dunk for Johnson. Pit a politician popular enough to be known to press and public alike by just his first name against one with a second name that invites the inevitable play on words and there can only ever be one winner.
Taking office in that sunny Wednesday Johnson did look, if only momentarily, like the coming man, even to those of us who never bought into his mystique.
Here was mercurial energy after three years of leaden plodding; affable spontaneity after years of dutifully over rehearsed dullness. Epic promises were made, the Minotaur of Brexit would be slain by a hero without a comb.
Spin forwards two months and those epic promises have turned into a failure of epic proportions.
In short order Boris Johnson has lost six major votes in a row and stoked the fires of a constitutional crisis by suspending parliament for five weeks. Allegedly so to allow for a Queen's speech to be prepared this was a crude tactic to stifle debate on a Brexit deal ahead of our exit date at the end of October.
As a piece of political game playing this has been the opposite of a roaring success. One of those six lost votes means that attempting to push through a no desk exit, his only hope of keeping the ERG onside, could see him in court; the other two denied him the election that might have given him a mandate.
Johnson hardly helped himself by removing the whip from twenty-one of his own MPs for voting against the government, wiping out his majority and creating a stage army on the back benches with axes to grind and nothing to lose.
He also turned in a performance at the despatch box that saw the mask of bumbling amiability slip showing a less pleasuring face underneath. Thwarted entitlement is seldom pretty to behold; on that occasion it was downright ugly.
Where did it all go wrong? How did someone who has traded on his ability to read the public mood get things so wrong and end up alienating pretty much everyone?
The fault lies, as ever, with the person at the centre of the drama; the enigma in his own imagination that is Boris Johnson.
He is a man born to good fortune, not just in the material sense, though going to Eton then Oxbridge helped to shape his view of himself as born to rule. It also gave him a contacts book to die for, allowing him to flit through careers in the media and politics taking on plum jobs and when through a mix of boredom and over confidence he messed up to step from one to the next without serious consequences.
Boris Johnson has carried this expectation through into the highest political office in the land. As when he was mayor of London his modus operandi is to racket about from one photo opportunity to the next firing off scatter gun quotes to the assembled press pack.
What he has failed to realise is that that no longer works, in the past there was always someone above to deal with the fallout from his inevitable gaffes. Now he's the grown up and had to take responsibility for a whole government a big ask for a man who has never really taken responsibility for himself.
In his shirt tenure as prime minister Boris Johnson has proved to be the exact opposite of everything we need in a leader at this difficult time.
Where we needed calm, he has brought chaos; where we needed mature capability, he has brought adolescent self-indulgence. Where the country needed healing and a period of clam; he has brought division and, maybe, disorder.
It is hardly unusual for politicians who believed in their personal destiny to lead to be tripped over by the grind of what happens to happen; few have been so rapidly and fully undone by their own failings.
In 3016 the Brexit referendum changed British politics forever, even though it is certain to be delayed until January our exit from the EU will happen. The aftermath will, if hopefully not so horrific as the reluctantly released government papers about Operation Yellowhammer suggest, will surely present huge challenges.
They will need to be met by a very different kind of leader, one who operates from a basis of pragmatism, seeking to build consensus rather than trying to force things through by the faulty magic of personal charisma.
In his short time in office Boris Johnson has proved without question that he is not the type of leader we need. Discovering who is could be the most important question of our time.
Thursday 5 September 2019
Palliative Care May be the Only Option for Bird Species Hit by Climate Change.
A third of bird species in the UK could be negatively impacted on by climate change according to research conducted for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
The research is based on a regional survey of 68 species based on population change and the impact of climate change on routes to the UK taken by migratory birds and uses data gathered by the BTO since 1966.
Science Director at the BTO Dr James Pearce Higgins told the BBC ‘we can see from our evidence a reshuffling of bird species’ in which there are ‘some winners that are doing better and some losers that are not doing so well’.
Losing out in this climate lottery are migratory birds, the number of cuckoos visiting the UK has dropped by 80% over the past thirty years, other migratory birds such as swifts and turtle doves have also suffered.
Birds common to the northern uplands are also vulnerable, with the golden plover expected to be extinct in the Peak District by the end of the century.
The winners are birds that can benefit from the UK having warmer winters in recent years. These include buzzards and common garden birds such as robins and blue tits.
The decline in migratory birds is thought to be due to warmer summers meaning there are less invertebrates for them to feed on, the impact of climate change on the countries they visit on the way to the UK is also believed to be a contributory factor.
Speaking to the BBC naturalist Nick Baker said that birds are ‘amazing creatures, adaptable and resilient; but only up to a point’. He called for their habitat to be safeguarded to give them a ‘fighting chance’ at long term survival.
Also speaking to the BBC Dr Alex Bond senior curator of birds at the National History Museum suggested that other issues including ‘habitat fragmentation’ may have impacted on the decline of some species, but climate change was clearly ‘the big one’.
Going on to say that habitat restoration and conservation would help redress the balance; but warned many species may be in a ‘palliative care state’ because the ‘stopping climate change ship has more or less sailed’.
Birds and humans have coexisted for thousands of years winding their way into our art and culture from high poetry to cheery images of robins on Christmas cards. The findings of the BTO show they are also a useful barometer of the harm we are doing to the climate.
Those species that are under threat have been put in that situation by climate change created by humans. Ironically those that are thriving do so because we feed them in return for having them hopping about on our suburban lawns.
I would like to hope that these, as Nick Baker puts it ‘adaptable and resilient’ creatures can survive because our efforts at conserving their habitat will prove to be more than just palliative care.
The message behind the BTO research though is painfully clear, another reminder that time is running out to act on climate change. If we don’t then Spring and every other season may be silent.
The research is based on a regional survey of 68 species based on population change and the impact of climate change on routes to the UK taken by migratory birds and uses data gathered by the BTO since 1966.
Science Director at the BTO Dr James Pearce Higgins told the BBC ‘we can see from our evidence a reshuffling of bird species’ in which there are ‘some winners that are doing better and some losers that are not doing so well’.
Losing out in this climate lottery are migratory birds, the number of cuckoos visiting the UK has dropped by 80% over the past thirty years, other migratory birds such as swifts and turtle doves have also suffered.
Birds common to the northern uplands are also vulnerable, with the golden plover expected to be extinct in the Peak District by the end of the century.
The winners are birds that can benefit from the UK having warmer winters in recent years. These include buzzards and common garden birds such as robins and blue tits.
The decline in migratory birds is thought to be due to warmer summers meaning there are less invertebrates for them to feed on, the impact of climate change on the countries they visit on the way to the UK is also believed to be a contributory factor.
Speaking to the BBC naturalist Nick Baker said that birds are ‘amazing creatures, adaptable and resilient; but only up to a point’. He called for their habitat to be safeguarded to give them a ‘fighting chance’ at long term survival.
Also speaking to the BBC Dr Alex Bond senior curator of birds at the National History Museum suggested that other issues including ‘habitat fragmentation’ may have impacted on the decline of some species, but climate change was clearly ‘the big one’.
Going on to say that habitat restoration and conservation would help redress the balance; but warned many species may be in a ‘palliative care state’ because the ‘stopping climate change ship has more or less sailed’.
Birds and humans have coexisted for thousands of years winding their way into our art and culture from high poetry to cheery images of robins on Christmas cards. The findings of the BTO show they are also a useful barometer of the harm we are doing to the climate.
Those species that are under threat have been put in that situation by climate change created by humans. Ironically those that are thriving do so because we feed them in return for having them hopping about on our suburban lawns.
I would like to hope that these, as Nick Baker puts it ‘adaptable and resilient’ creatures can survive because our efforts at conserving their habitat will prove to be more than just palliative care.
The message behind the BTO research though is painfully clear, another reminder that time is running out to act on climate change. If we don’t then Spring and every other season may be silent.
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