Welfare Rights Bulletin - Issue 280

This edition of CPAG’s flagship policy publication provides the clearest and most comprehensive picture of poverty in the UK today.

With four million children now living in poverty in the UK, and independent experts forecasting that figure is set to rise, the significant progress made at the turn of the millennium to eliminate child poverty is being reversed.

Based on the latest official figures, Poverty: the facts looks at why UK child poverty rises and falls.

It answers the following questions:

- What do we mean by poverty?
- How do we measure poverty?
- Who is at risk of poverty?
- Who is in poverty?
- How does the UK compare with other countries?
- What can we do about it?

Written by leading academics and policy analysts, Poverty: the facts is essential for anyone wanting to understand the policy and political debates around poverty, and is essential reading for academics, students, social workers, welfare rights workers, financial inclusion teams and the wider policy community.

This book by Rebecca O’Connell, Abigail Knight and Julia Brannen brings the latest research on food poverty together with the voices of children and young people experiencing food poverty first hand.

What are the social and family circumstances that leave children hungry and prevent them eating in socially acceptable ways? What part does school food play in the diets of children whose families are on low incomes?

Illustrated with photographs by young people and researchers, the book sheds light on the various dimensions of food poverty, including hunger, poor diets and social participation as well as families who are eating well despite having a low income. It asks who is responsible for making sure young people eat well and have access to adequate food for health and social participation, and includes recommendations from CPAG.

To reverse the recent increases in child poverty caused by cuts to working-age benefits and tax credits, the next government will need to increase tax revenue, argue the authors of the latest policy book from CPAG. Published to influence the thinking about the best way of doing this, the contributors explore our current tax system with its various direct and indirect taxes, and propose a strategy for reform.

This book brings together leading voices from academia and practice to discuss whether the government's new life chances agenda is meaningful. What does life chances mean? What can be done to improve them and how are children's life chances affected by poverty and deprivation? This year the government will publish its first ever life chances strategy. In this book, experts from research, policy and practice discuss the implications of the shift to 'life chances' as a frame for social policy, set out measures to improve children's life chances from perspectives including health, housing, families, early years, education and social mobility, and explain why we can't aspire to improving life chances unless we take action to reduce poverty.

This service includes the full text of the Disability Rights Handbook 2021/22, searchable and linked internally so you can skip to the next piece of relevant information with one mouseclick.

It is updated every two months from June 2021 to February 2022 - an invaluable service that means your online Handbook will keep pace with social security reform and changes to the law.

The Welfare Rights Bulletin is CPAG's journal of welfare benefits and tax credits law and practice. It is also an updating service for our Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook.

In this issue:

-Coronavirus and benefits from April
-Work capability assessments, delays and coronavirus
-Universally ineffective?
-The new transitional SDP element

Written for claimants and their advisors, CPAG’s annually updated Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook is the definitive guide to the UK’s social security system.

This new edition provides comprehensive information on your entitlement to benefits in 2021/22. It includes the latest on universal credit and legacy benefits as well as the impacts of the ending of the UK’s transition period from the EU (31/12/2020). The latest rules, including on migrating to universal credit, work-related responsibilities and changes to the right to reside in the UK are covered in detail. The edition also covers the continuing expansion of the Scottish social security system, with further details provided on young carer grants, child payments and child disability payments.

Tactical guidance and examples are included throughout to help you navigate an increasingly complex social security system. The Handbook is also fully indexed and cross-referenced to law, regulations and official guidance as well as to court, tribunal and judicial decisions.

Twenty-one years ago, Tony Blair made a promise to end child poverty to by 2020. In 2010, political parties of all stripes agreed binding targets. But rather than seeing the end of child poverty, in 2020 more than four million children live below the poverty line. This book looks at what has been achieved since the pledge to end child poverty was made, as well as considering what went wrong and the lessons that can be learned from both the highs and the lows of the past twenty years. It examines how the challenge of ending child poverty has changed over this period, and outlines a new ambitious plan to end child poverty for good.

In 2012, CPAG published a collection of essays titled 'Ending child poverty by 2020 - progress made and lessons learned'. This book completes the story to the end of the decade, bringing together a range of expert contributions from fields including health, education, housing, early years, social security, race, taxation and the lived experience of low income. This wide-ranging collection helps us understand why we are where we are, examines the impact of public policy during the austerity years and the possible impacts of Brexit, and offers fresh proposals for what an effective child poverty strategy 2020 should look like.

CPAG’s Benefits for Migrants Handbook has firmly established itself as the leading text on social security entitlement for people who have come to, or who are leaving, the UK.

This service includes the full text of the Benefits for Migrants Handbook, searchable and linked internally so you can skip to the next piece of relevant information with one mouse click. Subscriptions are one year in length, with the option of renewing for a further year. The book is updated on a rolling basis throughout the year - a vital service post-Brexit.

Following the end of the post-Brexit transition period on 31st December 2020, new rules take effect from 1st January 2021, which will significantly change the benefit entitlements of migrants. The publication of the 12th edition of this Handbook is timed to ensure advisers get the latest information on these changes.

The ending of European free movement rights within UK law affects the benefit entitlement of European nationals who began living in the UK before the end of 2020 and those who arrived after, and the family members of both groups. The Handbook covers the details of these changes, including how they operate alongside the EU Settlement Scheme, and the groups with protections that mean they can continue to use free movement rights to access benefits.

The end of the transition period also affects the benefit entitlements of claimants who move to live in Europe. The Handbook covers these changes together with other rules on when and for how long a claimant can continue to receive benefits while abroad. It also covers the rules for British citizens and others who return to the UK after living abroad.

Information to help you establish the immigration status of your clients is provided in addition to comprehensive details on the benefit entitlements that result from that status, including specific rules that apply to refugees and others granted leave following an asylum claim. For those with outstanding asylum claims, the Handbook provides detailed information on the asylum support system as well as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on claiming those rights.

The Handbook includes step-by-step guides and examples to make the information easier to use, tactics to help enforce your clients’ rights and chapters on dealing with practical problems, such as delays and providing evidence. It is fully indexed and cross-referenced to both UK and European legislation and caselaw. The Benefits for Migrants Handbook should be on the desk of everyone advising European and non-European nationals living in the UK, and claimants of all nationalities who have recently arrived in the UK or who are going abroad.

The journal aims to stimulate debate about the nature, causes and consequences of child poverty in the UK, and potential solutions.

​Inside this issue:​

- Running on empty: COVID-19, deep poverty and BAME children
- The government's misplaced confidence in the benefit cap
- A child’s right to an adequate standard of living
- Lockdown and poverty impacts on children