All major Las Vegas Strip casinos are now unionised in a historic victory for labour, says RIO YAMAT

ON TUESDAY February 4 the House of Commons debated the annual increase in social security benefits. Minister for Social Security and Disability Stephen Timms bragged about the 4.1 per cent increase in the state pension coming into effect in April and noted the miserly increase in most other benefits which will be increased by 1.7 per cent from April.
During the debate Timms had the nerve to state: “We have committed in our manifesto to reviewing universal credit, so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty … On disability and carers’ benefits, we will continue to ensure that carers and people who face additional costs because of disability or health impairment, get the support that they need.’’
He failed to acknowledge that the 1.7 per cent increase in most benefits, including universal credit, was yet another cut in the standard of living of some of the poorest people in our country. In January of this year inflation was 2.5 per cent and is forecast to rise to over 3 per cent later this year. So this cut in living standards for millions is even before Labour starts cutting over £1 billion a year from universal credit (UC), employment support allowance (ESA) and personal independence payments (PIP) over the lifetime of this parliament.

A new report validates disabled people’s criticisms of a welfare system which, under capitalism, is designed to punish rather than support, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY

DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants

The government’s retreat on PIP still leaves 150,000 new universal credit claimants facing halved benefits from April 2026, creating a discriminatory two-tier welfare system that campaigners must continue fighting, writes DR DYLAN MURPHY

Labour’s austerity package, targeted at disabled people and the most vulnerable in our society, stands to drive over 150,000 children into poverty and millions of adults deeper into hardship, warns Dr DYLAN MURPHY