Rishi’s Removals was a bold stunt pulled by the Big Issue yesterday. The van with a picture of a cheerful PM alongside the words ‘Driving families out of their homes’ rolled past parliament and Big Ben.
It came as we launched a new campaign urging the government to protect renters in the cost of living crisis and beyond.
Rents have been spiralling but housing benefit payments have not kept pace. People on the lowest incomes have been left to cut back on essentials or fall into debt.
So the Big Issue is calling for the government to unfreeze local housing allowance rates – that’s the amount that determines how much housing benefit you get. If it’s lower than your rent, that’s what you’ll receive, and it’s been frozen since 2018/2019. We want a rise to make sure housing benefit payments keep up with soaring rent costs.
We’re also backing the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Trussell Trust’s calls for an ‘essentials guarantee’, with an increase to universal credit so that people can afford the basics they need to survive at the very least. Right now, universal credit claimants are about £34 short each week.
And finally, the Big Issue is urging the government to bring forward the Renters Reform Bill and end no-fault evictions for good, at long last putting renters in the private sector on a sure footing. The Renters Reform Bill promises to be the biggest shake-up of the private rented sector in a generation.
Like the sound of all that? Sign the Big Issue Group’s End Housing Insecurity Now petition and urge the prime minister to ensure people can stay in their homes.
Lots else going on this week. Here’s the latest.
Need to know basis
⚖️ Disabled people punished. The government announced it will be overhauling work capability assessments, cloaked in language about supporting people back into work. But charities warn the reality is that the government is tightening work capability assessments – leading to huge anxiety and potentially sanctions. Here’s what you need to know.
It comes after MPs from across parties debated disability benefits assessments in Westminster earlier this week. They said the assessment process is “harrowing” and “inhumane” and called on the government to act. Read about it here.
💼 Job hunt. Government jobcentres are failing both job seekers and employers by forcing candidates to apply for roles they are “entirely unsuitable for”, the IPPR has found. The approach relying “on sanctions to push people into jobs reinforces insecure, poor quality work”. The Big Issue’s employment reporter Evie reports.
♻️ Good riddance, Grant. Climate campaigners said “good riddance” to former energy security and net zero secretary Grant Shapps. His successor Claire Coutinho is facing pressure to take immediate action to reform the “broken energy system”, ease the cost of living and cut emissions.
👋 Welcome, Liz. Eyes will also be on Liz Kendall, the new shadow minister for work and pensions. She’s a controversial choice for some, having been the only Labour leadership candidate in 2015 to back welfare cuts. I dug into what we might expect from Kendall in the role, and charities and campaigners shared their calls to action.
🧱 Crumbling roofs. The collapsing school buildings scandal has exposed how the government has failed to make necessary changes before the crisis emerged, writes Adam Bienkov in the Byline Times. And it means after-effects like parents suddenly having to scramble to find childcare at the last minute. Quite the start to the new school year.
🏫 A struggling school. The Financial Times’s Jennifer Williams shadowed a headmaster at an Oldham secondary school for a year. More than half of the children are living below the breadline. It is an emotive read on the lives of these children after the pandemic and in the cost of living crisis – but it also tells a wider story about how schools are on the frontline.
💰Tax the super-rich. Millionaires, economists and prominent politicians have called on the G20 to “tax the super-rich” with a wealth tax. Both Labour and the Conservatives are against a wealth tax in the UK. But 73% of the public want it. The Big Issue’s activism reporter Greg has all you need to know.
🥫 Food bank fatigue. Britain’s food bank charities are bringing in counselling, GP and mental health support services to help staff and volunteers cope with stress and exhaustion, The Guardian reports. It comes as a new report from the Independendent Food Aid Network (IFAN) revealed food banks are bracing for a ‘calamitous’ winter.
❄️ A bitter winter. The number of excess winter deaths in the UK caused by living in a cold, damp home climbed by about a third last winter, according to fuel poverty campaigners. It comes as National Energy Action has revealed more than one million people missed out on energy support, such as the rebate last year. That’s £440 million worth of support.
🥪 Pret price problem. This is another fascinating piece from the Financial Times about how sandwiches (and everything else) have become “bloody expensive”. And just look at those graphs showing how prices have soared! You might want to try making your own lunch inspired by Pret, just like Hannah Evans did in The Times earlier this summer.
.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Screenshot%202023-09-06%20at%2011.53.01%20(2).png)
