Latest editorial
WELFARE-TO-WORK schemes for which profiteers get payment by results (PBR) were dealt a major blow yesterday as auditors warned they might create “perverse incentives” for the providers.
The damning assessment by the National Audit Office (NAO) showed that central government did not know how many such schemes were in place across the public sector or how much taxpayers’ money was being spent on them.
Neither the Cabinet Office nor the Treasury maintains a database of these arrangements, by which private firms are paid depending on outcomes.
Years of underfunding are eroding Scotland’s local services and deepening inequality in communities, says VINCE MILLS
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
Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS
