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News & Blogs

Find our latest press releases and news here, as well as our blogs that have been written by our staff, volunteers and clients.
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Blogs
    • Blog

    “I have given you an explanation on your Universal Credit payment, unfortunately it is not for me to comment or discuss your question on how you are to survive”

    This was the response my client Sarah* received when she asked her Universal Credit case manager how she, her partner and 2 children were supposed to live on £73 for the entire month. Sarah had been hit by the benefit cap, a policy which has been in place since April 2013 and according to Child Poverty Action Group is now having a devastating impact on up to 250 000 households.

    Anna Ellis 10/03/2021
    Blog

    My experience of the hostile environment that is Universal Credit

    I’m Carl, I’m 39, and I’ve been receiving UC for three years. Around the same time I started claiming UC I was diagnosed with degenerative disorder, a condition that affects the vertebrae and nerves in my back and gives me problems with chronic pain.

    Z2K 17/02/2021
    Blog

    Homeless families deserve better than council gatekeeping

    I’ve been working in the advice sector from the days of the House of Lords case of Street v Mountford – too many years, some may say! And I thought I knew most of the tricks London Boroughs use to deny homeless people their legal rights. But its only when I came to Z2K and started dealing with Westminster City Council’s Housing Options Service on a regular basis that I realised I didn’t know the half of it.

    Anne Killeen 11/02/2021
    Blog

    Ignore and refute: Government’s response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s Universal Credit report

    At the beginning of the year, the Government responded to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s report ‘Universal Credit: The wait for a first payment.’ This report contained extensive evidence from a range of stakeholders on the hardship Universal Credit’s (UC) design flaws, including the minimum five week wait for a first payment, is causing – as well as considered recommendations put forward by the Committee that could help alleviate these. The Government’s response was pitiful – it ignored and refuted the evidence, instead outlining how it will continue to push forward with policies that have very little regard for the people who depend on them for support.

    Becca Stacey 27/01/2021

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