BRITAIN is on course for the lowest benefits rates since records began, a new report found as the Tories were yesterday condemned for announcing harsher welfare sanctions in an ugly resurgence of its austerity-era “shirker” rhetoric.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told the Conservative conference the government is replacing the work capability assessment and examining the sanctions regime.
Save the Children UK branded his claims that 100,000 people are leaving the labour market every year for a life on benefits were based on a “complete fallacy.”
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



