government

The government is today trumpeting the 'success' of its benefit cap pilot after more than 2,400 families had their income reduced in the London Boroughs of Enfield, Haringey, Bromley and Croydon.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not say what its criteria for success are, but since April last year, Jobcentre Plus has been targeting those claimants potentially affected with 12,400 having moved into work and 32,300 having accepted employment support.

The government must publish the names of those organisations that have provided work placements to unemployed people who were referred through public schemes.

A court has ruled that companies' names can no longer be kept secret at the end of a 15-month Freedom of Information process, which saw the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) fight campaigners including Boycott Workfare.

Heather Stewart, the economics correspondent of The Observer, has written an article on the choice the UK government, and others around the world, has made to prioritise the reduction of the national debt rather than unemployment.

As she points out, the government is fond of talking up the importance of spending cuts because the alternative, increasing debt, is simply borrowing against our children's future.

After all, all borrowings must be paid back.

Today's Queen's Speech promises more cuts for the unemployed and other claimants, including new immigrants to the UK who will have access to benefits restricted.

There was better news in the new National Insurance Contributions Bill, which cuts NI contributions paid by small businesses when they employ someone, potentially boosting the number of jobs available, and in plans to improve the availability of childcare for working people.