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Social security and welfare benefits

This category contains 67 posts

The DWP’s Handling of the Migration of Disability Benefit Claimants to Employment and Support Allowance: The DWP’s Response to the Report of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (Part 1)

By Robert Thomas (University of Manchester) In January 2022, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published its report into the handling, by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), of the migration of a disability benefit claimant, Mrs U, to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). More specifically, the key issues are: (a) whether the … Continue reading

New report: Poverty and social rights in Essex

New report: Poverty and social rights in Essex By Lyle Barker and Koldo Casla (University of Essex, Human Rights Centre) This blog is a re-post of a piece that initially appeared on the Essex Human Rights Centre blog, available here. The blog is reposted with permission and thanks. Our new report published today, documents the … Continue reading

State pension underpayments and the payment of interest

Robert Thomas, University of Manchester Should people underpaid their state pensions receive not just arrears for those underpayments, but also the interest on them in order to make up for inflation? The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) thinks not, but the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) thinks they should. The recent Parliamentary and Health Service … Continue reading

Preventing exclusion in an age of digitalisation

Preventing exclusion in an age of digitalisation By Jo Hynes (Research Fellow, Public Law Project and PhD candidate, University of Exeter) This blog piece summarises the full rapporteur’s briefing available on the Public Law Project website. Despite significant benefits, the ongoing HMCTS reform programme’s commitment to digital justice poses significant challenges, not least in the … Continue reading

Half a million people didn’t take-up Universal Credit at the start of COVID-19 – and why this matters

Half a million people didn’t take-up Universal Credit at the start of COVID-19 – and why this matters By Ben Baumberg Geiger (Senior Lecturer, University of Kent, and co-lead of the ‘Welfare at a (Social) Distance’ project on the benefits system during COVID-19) In a new report, we estimate that in July/August 2020, about half a … Continue reading