Benefits

Britain needs more honesty about unemployment

18 October 2022 4:30 pm

Is low unemployment causing us more problems than we realise? The suggestion might seem absurd, offensive even. It’s reminiscent of…

Liz Truss should increase Universal Credit

7 September 2022 10:32 pm

Liz Truss’s plans for a two-year energy bill freeze, estimated to cost £100 billion, underscore three points. One, the incoming Prime…

Rishi Sunak's low tax pitch to MPs

28 October 2021 4:48 am

Is Rishi Sunak a low tax chancellor? He certainly likes to tell anyone who will listen that he is. Yet…

Could the squeeze on living standards bring down Boris?

24 September 2021 3:00 pm

There is about to be a two-phase onslaught on the living standards of those on low-to-middling incomes. On 1 October…

Universal Credit and the future of the welfare state

13 February 2021 9:00 am

Amid the many failures of public policy during the Covid crisis, one success has gone largely unnoticed. The Universal Credit…

How Thérèse Coffey plans to help millions back to work

10 October 2020 9:00 am

Thérèse Coffey on stemming the unemployment tide

There are things we don’t mind paying for – and things we do

2 January 2016 9:00 am

Here’s a challenge for film buffs: can anyone remember, from the entire canon of cinema and television, a single scene…

Spirited, indomitable and proud: matriarch Julie Young

Benefits Street reviewed: if anyone’s being exploited, it’s the taxpayers, says James Delingpole

16 May 2015 9:00 am

My favourite scene in the first episode of the new series of Benefits Street (Mondays, Channel 4) — now relocated…

Why I’m thankful that Atos found me fit to work

14 March 2015 9:00 am

Being found ‘fit for work’ changed my life for the better

Five more MPs making Malcolm Rifkind’s day rate

28 February 2015 9:00 am

Golden league Some MPs who earn Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s rate of £5,000 a day: — Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury): £3,333…

How to fix Britain’s immigration crisis (without leaving Europe)

13 December 2014 9:00 am

The crisis is real. And we can solve it without leaving Europe

Who cleans skyscrapers?

23 August 2014 9:00 am

Tough at the top The clocks on Big Ben were cleaned by abseiling window-cleaners. Some other big cleaning/painting jobs: —…

I’m scared to admit to being a Tory in today’s C of E

1 March 2014 9:00 am

Believe me, it’s not easy to be a Tory in today’s C of E

Leader: Ring-fencing the NHS is only making matters worse

20 July 2013 9:00 am

According to popular wisdom on the left — and even among some in the Conservative party — this ought to have been…