Benefit fraud in the Department for Work and Pensions
A leaflet withdrawn by the Department of Work and Pensions this week has proved that you don’t need to be a resident of ‘Benefits Street,’ to commit benefit fraud. Rather, the DWP has been doing some system cheating of its own after selecting ‘Sarah’ and ‘Zac’ to play the roles of contented benefit claimants in a publication outlining benefit sanctions.
The scandal was brought to light by Welfare Weekly who filed a freedom of information request, when they found tales about claimants who were happy with the suspension of their benefits, unconvincing.
The publication about sanctions included Sarah’s story, in which she explains that you can fight the cuts provided you’re armed with a CV and, in actual fact, having no money can be quite beneficial. But in reality, as the House of Commons' Work and Pensions Select Committee found earlier this year, evidence suggests that the sanctions are punitive and might be more of a hindrance, than help into work.
High flying Cameron takes it easy
This week has seen David Cameron fall foul of an eagle eyed holiday goer as he made his way to Portugal.
The photo of the Prime Minister polishing off a tube of paprika Pringles has an unfortunate touch of the ‘Ed Milibands’. While the snap doesn’t quite reach the levels of ‘bacon sandwich-gate’, Cameron doesn’t quite manage to achieve the statesmanlike pose to which we’ve become accustomed.
Social Media was quickly abuzz with the Prime Minister’s choice of snack as the image almost instantly started to trend (it’s clearly been a slow week). A number of people took to twitter to voice their surprise that Cameron was in fact travelling on an EasyJet flight. Indeed, one Louis Findlay proclaimed that the image of the Prime Minister scoffing a pack of crisps on a budget airline flight provided definitive proof that he’s a ‘man of the people’.
Bonnie Lass
Over the weekend, Kezia Dugdale was elected as the new leader of Scottish Labour. She stormed to victory with an impressive 72.1% of the vote, but is aware that she has a tough battle ahead of her to turn around the fortunes of Scottish Labour.
Her first challenge comes in the Scottish Parliament election which is only a matter of months away. Given the SNP’s current ascendency, it seems almost impossible that Labour will be triumphant. Can she better ex-leader Jim Murphy’s Westminster performance, and hold onto more than one Holyrood seat?
Dugdale has vowed to “work night and day” for Scottish Labour’s troubled cause. Being the 16th leader in 15 years, however, means that her position is perilous and it remains to be seen whether hard toil will be enough to protect her.
Shire not Shy Tories
First it was the Northern Powerhouse, then it was the Midlands Engine Room, now the countryside will also get the George Osborne treatment. In a “10-point plan to help boost rural productivity,” published on Thursday, Liz Truss, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out their objectives.
Most of the 10 points are entirely uncontroversial and some are issues rural areas have been clamouring for improvement on; superfast broadband, better mobile reception, updated transport connections and improved schools to name a few. But point 8 may stick in the craw of the country squire. According to documents published by DEFRA:
“Through the right combination of measures, the government wants to ensure that any village in England has the freedom to expand in an incremental way, subject to local agreement. The government will make it easier for villages to establish neighbourhood plans and allocate land for new homes, including the use of rural exception sites to deliver Starter Homes.”
We’ll see how that sits with Shire Tories.