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RAMZY BAROUD sees Gaza abandoned while the genocide continues
DEATH AND THE STATE: HOW DWP SANCTIONS SNUFF OUT LIVES
Two different freedom of information requests have exposed the shocking toll of benefits sanctions on the lives of Britain’s most vulnerable, writes ANITA BELLOWS
ANDREW MURRAY offers some troubling thoughts on pressing political issues
Tensions have once again escalated between Egypt and Ethiopia over GERD, Africa’s largest hydroelectric project, and now Trump has offered to mediate. NICHOLAS MWANGI reports
The National Education Union general secretary speaks to Ben Chacko on growing calls to protect children from a toxic online culture
While Iranians take to the streets en masse to protest sky-high inflation, Trump and Netanyahu are threatening military intervention. The Iranian population is trapped between a repressive regime, a suffocating economic war from the outside, and a history of dark alliances, argues MARC VANDEPITTE
Unison Scotland’s BRENDA AITCHISON says her union won’t tolerate further cuts to public services
SANCTIONS have been a feature of the welfare system since 1913, but in the past were applied in a narrow set of circumstances (such as dismissal for misconduct or voluntarily leaving a job).
They certainly did not extend to certain groups of people, particularly those one would expect to be protected against deliberate hardship and deprivation inflicted by one of the world’s richest nations.
Benefits sanctions have been the subject of many studies, although always viewed through the same prism: do they “help” jobless people move into work? Few studies have focused purely on the negative impact of sanctions, which is always fleetingly mentioned, although a 2002 one into the impact of welfare sanctions on the health of infants and toddlers in the US clearly shows a link between sanctions and a 30 per cent rise in hospitalisation of infants and toddlers. It also shows a 30 per cent higher risk of malnutrition at a critical age.
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Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY
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