Abour twenty years ago there was a man in Brighton who would go up to people in the street and ask them for ten pee. He cannot have been very successful as he later reduced his request to a pee. Perhaps he did not generate sufficient sympathy, being big, sturdy and obviously well-fed. Other beggars adopted different strategies. A popular one was to ask for the bus fare to Eastbourne as they had...

One of the effects of the welfare cuts that start today has so far received little attention – their effect on local economies in depressed areas. By removing purchasing power from local economies, the cuts will make matters worse. Workers – especially in retailing – are going to lose their jobs as welfare recipients cut back. The cuts are meant to encourage work instead of living...

Citizens’ Income is an unconditional benefit payable to all resident citizens. Could an LVT raise enough revenue to pay for it? If one considers the island model, under an LVT scheme all the rent is collected and put in a common fund. The islanders then have the choice as to whether to share it out equally between them or buy some Type 45 destroyers, and a few jet fighters.The citizens of...

Extreme global poverty could be eradicated by the end of the next decade under optimistic new targets unveiled by the World Bank. The bank’s president, Jim Yong Kim, claimed  that there was now an “opportunity to create a world free from the stain of poverty” by 2030.

The G8 scheme does nothing to address the problems that are at the core of hunger and malnutrition but will serve only to further poverty and inequality. Read more here.

Benefit cheats exploit the system and rob the community. What they do is dishonest, criminal and a punishable offence. Benefit cheats obtain public funds to which they are not entitled. Is this surprising? The system is wide open to abuse. What else can we expect? In a recent case, a 51-year-old woman claimed over £30,000 for 9 years and was discovered to have bank accounts in three countries, a...

Any hope of joined-up government seems to be receding ever more quickly in the wake of a torrent of ill-thought-out policies. Last night I heard a story about a man with an ASBO who was called for a health test to try to get him off his benefits and into – what, exactly? The trouble is that attending the test will put him in breach of his ASBO as he is not allowed to be in that part of town...

We note that the Chancellor’s proposals for means-testing of child benefit are floundering on the practicalities of the scheme. We are not keen on child benefit in principle, as we take the view that people should not require these hand-outs. On the whole, they give with the right hand money that has been taken away with the left, all at considerable expense. But having put the system in place,...

The inevitable row has erupted over the government’s proposal to restrict housing benefit. The argument is that poor people will be forced out of areas where rents are high. At the same time, a report from the Audit Commission today noted that 1,600 homes occupied by unauthorised tenants have been recovered by councils, with a replacement cost of approximately £240 million.  

World leaders are meeting at the United Nations in New York for a three-day summit (20-22 September) on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the main framework for development policy over the past decade, with the aim of eliminating poverty. Ten years after their launch, and five years before the target date, many of these goals – especially those on child and maternal health –...