The Poverty Site The UK site for statistics on poverty and social exclusion. This site monitors what is happening to poverty and social exclusion in the UK. The material is organised around 100 statistical indicators covering all aspects of the subject, from income and work to health and education. The indicators and graphs can be viewed by age group or by subject using the ...

Child Poverty Action Group: Charity committed to ending child and family poverty in the United Kingdom through research, campaigning, publications, training and advocacy.

Tories plan to let benefit levels be set by local councils Labour condemns proposed 'postcode lottery' for sums paid in regions with different costs of living Controversial plans to decentralise the welfare <http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/welfare> state by giving councils the right to set their own regional levels of benefit are being considered by the Tories. The ideas, floated under the ...

A patient lobby group is demanding an urgent review of basic hospital care after highlighting accounts of "appalling" NHS standards. The Patients Association highlighted 16 cases in England where people, often the elderly, were left lying in faeces and urine and were not helped to eat. The group's president Claire Rayner, an ex-nurse, called for "bad, cruel nurses" to be struck off. The ...

As a result of the heroic communications wizardry of the Notting Hill set, the "decontamination of the Tory brand" has now reached a point where the good intentions of the Conservatives are now generally accepted. Focus groups suggested that great swaths of the electorate assumed that the Conservatives were against poor people. Perhaps people thought that Conservatives were snobs. Perhaps it ...

By Josephine Moulds, City Reporter Published: 6:00AM BST 13 Aug 2009 Unemployment will soon surpass the 3¼m mark, taking it to levels which rival the worst years of the 1980s, economists said as the jobless rate scaled new heights. Government data show 2.4m Britons were out of work in June – the latest evidence that economic and social pain is still intensifying, despite hopes that the ...

IFS aims to put all its research findings in the public domain, either in our own publications or in other people's (ranging from peer-reviewed academic journals to newspaper articles). Most of the Institute's own publications are available free of charge online and some are also sold in hard copy. Among our own publications: Commentaries, such as our annual Green Budget, are substantial ...

Civitas - Why the NHS is the sick man of Europe

T - Labour's silence on it's NHS health failures- 13 March 06 Labour shows it's priority for the NHS is Brown's budget- 20 March 06 Doctors for Reform's report reviewing Labour failures and offers a solution to the chaos- 3 April 06 . " ." More NHS cutbacks and closures as Bliar carries on regardless- 10 April 06 Centralist IT NHS system is a recipe for "chaos and disaster"- 17 April 06 RCN ...

Published: 12:01AM BST 20 Apr 2006 Labour once had an election slogan that suggested there were "24 hours to save the NHS". In nine years in office, it has shown the institution is, to borrow another phrase, far from safe in its hands. Having spent 18 years taunting the Tories about a nonexistent hidden agenda to privatise or otherwise wreck our system of free-at-point-of-use health care, ...

The number of unemployed people is predicted to hit 2 million for the first time in more than a decade this week, as the Conservatives claimed that only half of vacancies are being advertised in Jobcentres.

Labour's 'shocking failure' as aimless youths double Labour accused of 'shocking failure' as number of aimless youths doubles in leafy suburbs The number of youths who do not have a job or a college place has doubled even in wealthy areas in recent years.

Married couples 'punished by tax system' Married couples are thousands of pounds worse off than parents who do not live together under the tax and benefits system, according to a report by an influential think tank.

A Conservative Government would start to dismantle the generous pensions schemes enjoyed by 4.5 million public sector workers, David Cameron has said.

Everyone between the ages of 16 and 25 should do at least six months of "intensive" voluntary work, former home secretary David Blunkett has said

The target to halve child poverty by 2010 will be missed unless the Government invests a further £3 billion in child benefits and tax credits, a powerful coalition of family charities has warned.

Married couples will be offered new tax breaks as one of the priorities of a Conservative government, the shadow chancellor George Osborne has declared.

Britain is now home to more pensioners than children for the first time in the country's history, official population figures have disclosed.

George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, today accuses Gordon Brown of making Britain a less fair place over the past decade in a detailed attack on Labour's record.

The Conservatives today set out their credentials to become the champions of social equality in a document outlining the education gap between rich and poor, which they claim has widened under the Labour government.

David Cameron's big idea is to mend Britain's "broken society", tackling the root causes of poverty and deprivation rather than throwing more money at them. His aides admit privately he will need to explain his mission a million times before the public will hear his message – let alone be convinced by it – but that won't deter him.

Conservative education spokesman Michael Gove today accused "lad mags", such as Zoo and Nuts, of contributing to family breakdown by encouraging young men to view women as sex objects.

the launch of a new round of welfare reform on July 21st by James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, is a tacit admission that Labour has achieved too little in its decade of power.

Find the latest comment, opinion and obituaries from the Telegraph.

Welfare reform has been the dominant topic in the Glasgow East by-election as the UK Government announces plans to reduce the number of claimants.

BBC News examines the issue of absenteeism among black fathers after David Cameron enters the debate on family breakdown.

To me, social justice entails three things. Firstly, helping people help themselves. Secondly, fairness – both to those who need help and those doing the helping. And thirdly, ensuring the most vulnerable are not left behind.

give doctors and hospitals much greater independence, establish a comprehensive payment-by-results tariff, allowing unrestrained competition between the private sector and NHS trusts, and then allow patients to choose freely between providers. Patient choice would be underpinned by the publication of healthcare outcomes, so that competition would really be directed towards higher standards.

The Spectator on reforming the NHS

Health correspondent Branwen Jeffrey's finds a "steady-as-she-goes" ethos to the Conservatives' plans for the NHS.