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1 week ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Social Justice 'We should be supporting these people to rebuild their lives – not creating more challenges for them to overcome' Planned benefit cuts designed to get people back into work will actually drive them into homelessness, charities have warned the government. In March, the Department for Work and Pensions released its Pathways to Work green paper, proposing sweeping cuts to disability benefits.
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1 week ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Housing As of March 2025, some 31,719 households in Northern Ireland were experiencing homelessness The number of households with homelessness status in Northern Ireland has more than doubled in the last decade, damning new figures show. Released on Thursday (29 May), the latest Housing Bulletin from the devolved government’s Department for Communities paints a bleak picture of homelessness across the region.
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1 week ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Housing 'When nearly half of people are so financially fragile that they are living in fear of a £100 bill, something has gone very wrong' Nearly half of UK adults fear they are just £100 away from failing to pay their rent or mortgage, a shocking new poll has found. From a broken down car to a dodgy boiler, life is full of unforeseen expenses.
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2 weeks ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Uncategorised More than a third of under-fives in England and Wales now live in poverty – the highest rate of any age group Reforming the controversial two-child benefit cap could lift more than 230,000 children under five out of poverty, a new report has foundIntroduced in 2017 as part of Conservative austerity reforms, the policy restricts support through universal credit and child tax credit to the first two children in most families.
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2 weeks ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Housing Energy bills will fall in July – but the average energy bill continues to be 10% higher (almost £150) than at this time last year Millions of UK households will see their energy bills fall this summer, after regulator Ofgem announced a 7% reduction in the energy price cap. The average annual bill will fall by £129 to £1,720 from July – the first cut to the cap in a year.
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2 weeks ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Politics 'Populist parties are mobilising people around an alternative vision of the common good at astonishing pace' After Labour’s drubbing at the May local elections, prime minister Keir Starmer was defiant. “I’m not going to navel-gaze or turn inward,” he wrote in the Times. But a degree of self-reflection may be in order. Not just for the prime minister, a preeminent left-wing think tank has said, but for the entirety of the “progressive left”.
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2 weeks ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Employment More than half (55%) of Brits with multiple sclerosis claim PIP, including 41% who are currently working Half of UK workers with multiple sclerosis (MS) have felt forced to stay in jobs that worsen their health, a damning new report has found – and the government’s disability benefit reforms could make matters worse. More than 150,000 Brits – or one in every 400 adults – live with MS, a lifelong neurological condition affecting the brain and spinal cord.
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2 weeks ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Housing 4,427 people were counted as sleeping rough in London between January and March this year – up 8% on the same period in 2024 London mayor Sadiq Khan has promised to put prevention at the heart of his plan to end rough sleeping in London for good by 2030, shifting away from support delivered only “at crisis point”. Currently, only “verified rough sleepers” – who outreach workers have seen sleeping on the streets – can access many types of homelessness support in the capital.
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2 weeks ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Housing Some 130,000 households are currently living in temporary accommodation, emergency housing provided by a local authority A record 130,000 homeless households across England are now languishing in so-called temporary accommodation (TA), a damning new report has found – including one family in Croydon who has spent a staggering 9,500 days in emergency housing. The figure – which has spiked by more than 15% in the last year alone – includes 165,510 children.
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3 weeks ago | 
bigissue.com | Charlotte Elton
Sponsored by Wales & West Housing Association Welsh Labour have led every Welsh parliament since devolution – but that unbroken run could end at the 2026 elections At the bottom of Cardiff’s Queen Street, Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan stands. The Labour politician is rendered in bronze, his far-seeing gaze unbroken by shoppers and seagulls. The statue is tribute to a man whom many credit with founding the NHS, and to the political party that made it a reality.
