Markus Andrews

The government’s review into the UK’s most-claimed disability and health-related benefit has delivered a new update as new experts are appointed to help lead the process.Chaired by disability and social security minister Sir Stephen Timms, the review focuses on the personal independence payment (PIP), which is currently claimed by 3.8 million people. The benefit is designed to help with extra costs incurred by living with an illness or disability. Earlier this year, Labour’s proposals to tweak the assessment criteria for the benefit to effectively make it harder to claim were met with fierce opposition from campaign groups and politicians.Ministers backed down on the plans in late June after over 100 Labour MPs threatened to vote against the government on the measures. The concession – and review – was announced by Sir Stephen in the middle of the debate on the legislation.Sir Stephen Timms, who is leading a review into personal independence payments (UK Parliament) More

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering an increase in income tax at next month’s Budget, it has been reported. The Treasury is looking into the possibility of putting up the rate by 2p, while simultaneously cutting national insurance by 2p, according to The Telegraph.It comes after The Independent reported that Ms Reeves is coming under pressure to break the manifesto pledge and make changes to the top rate of income tax. The chancellor is facing the prospect of increasing taxes on 26 November as she looks to balance the books, and keep to her golden rule of funding day-to-day spending with tax receipts. On Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer declined to stand by Labour’s manifesto pledge not to raise VAT, income tax or national insurance at the Budget.Reeves is coming under pressure to break the manifesto pledge and make changes to the top rate of income tax More

U.K. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves has apologized for breaking the law by renting out her London house without a license.Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would not take action over what Reeves called an inadvertent mistake.Reeves and her family moved out of their south London home and into a government-owned apartment next to the prime minister’s Downing Street residence after the Labour Party was elected in July 2024.The Daily Mail newspaper reported late Wednesday that Reeves did not have a rental license, as required by the local authority in the area. Landlords who don’t have a license can be prosecuted or fined.In a letter to Starmer, published by the prime minister’s office, Reeves said it was “an inadvertent mistake. As soon as it was brought to my attention, we took immediate action and have applied for the license.”Starmer replied that he had consulted the government’s ethics adviser, who had concluded that “further investigation is not necessary.”“I am satisfied that this matter can be drawn to a close following your apology,” he wrote.Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said that wasn’t good enough and demanded Starmer launch a full investigation.Reeves is already under pressure over the public finances as she prepares to deliver her annual budget statement on Nov. 26.The Labour Party government has struggled to deliver the economic growth it promised. Inflation remains stubbornly high and the economic outlook subdued, frustrating efforts to repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living.Reeves has indicated she may abandon a preelection promise not to raise income tax or sales tax, arguing that the economy is in a worse state than previously thought after 14 years of Conservative government.Starmer has already lost members of his government to scandal.In September, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner resigned after failing to pay enough tax on a home purchase. Days later, Starmer fired Britain’s high-profile ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over his links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. More

Ending the two-child benefit cap with “half measures” will still see child poverty rise, Rachel Reeves has been warned in a hard-hitting report from the UK’s leading left-wing think tank.The findings from the Resolution Foundation, whose former director Torsten Bell is now one of Ms Reeves’s Treasury ministers, come amid speculation that the chancellor will lift the cap to a maximum of three children in a bid to appease angry backbenchers.The think tank warned: “Fully scrapping the two-child limit on benefits is an essential step towards achieving lower child poverty rates in 2029/30 than in 2024/25. No partial repeal of the policy is sufficient to keep child poverty rates from rising.”But the cost of lifting the cap altogether is believed to be £3.5bn a year, at a time when Ms Reeves has to fill a budget black hole estimated at £40bn and is also seeking more headroom flexibility to deal with economic shocks.Rachel Reeves is being asked for an extra £3.5bn a year to end the child benefit cap More

Kemi Badenoch is set to urge Keir Starmer to sack Rachel Reeves if she increases taxes at next month’s Budget.The Tory leader will demand that the chancellor “get the axe if she puts up tax”.Ms Reeves is widely expected to increase taxes next month as she attempts to bridge a gap in her spending plans thought to amount to more than £20 billion.On Wednesday, the prime minister declined to repeat his commitment to Labour’s manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT.Kemi Badenoch will apply pressure on the chancellor ahead of her upcoming Budget More

Lost and helpless in a foreign country, Abu Omar* was grateful to be given a place to stay in a hotel after arriving in the UK last year.After fleeing a refugee camp in Jordan, he and his young family were offered a room in a London hotel, which had been designated for asylum seekers by the goverment.Abu and his wife Sarah* live there with their two young children, packed together into a tired and bleak single room. Living day to day inside the four walls, they survive on a diet of bread, cheese and fruit. They said they decided to stop eating the hotel food after their children, a daughter aged 4 and a son aged 6, both contracted food poisoning from uncooked chicken served there. Abu had little with him when he arrived in Britain and, after his pair of trousers got torn, he was left with only one outfit – the tracksuit he had arrived in.Once a week, Sarah would hand-wash his tracksuit in the sink of their hotel room. With nothing else to wear, he would remain there for a day or two in his underwear until his clothes had dried.St George’s flag hung outside of a Home Office hotel More

With Labour’s autumn Budget less than a month away, the Treasury is reportedly considering ways to shake up property tax in the UK, including a controversial new levy on high-value properties.Chancellor Rachel Reeves may need to find at least £22bn at the upcoming fiscal event, researchers from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) recently warned, as weak growth forecasts continue to reduce room for manoeuvre.Adding further to the government’s woes are reports that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is set to downgrade the UK’s performance on productivity, which could add another £20bn gap in public spending.Ministers have insisted that any tax rises should be focused on those with the most wealth, as living standards in the UK continue to drop. It is understood that the chancellor is currently considering a so-called ‘mansion tax’ that would see owners of high-value properties hit with a new charge.Different versions of how the tax could work have been floated, both with the potential to raise considerable sums for the exchequer.Chancellor Rachel Reeves may need to find at least £22bn at the upcoming fiscal event, researchers from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) recently warned More

A migrant sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison in a major blunder was paid £500 to leave the UK, it has emerged.Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said she shared the public’s anger over Hadush Kebatu’s bungled release and had “pulled every lever” to remove him from British soil – but revelations about the cash payment are likely to spark further outrage. Kebatu, who was forcibly sent back to Ethiopia on Tuesday night with a team of five escorts on the flight, was given a £500 payment after threatening to disrupt his deportation flight. Downing Street said on Wednesday that the payment had been an “operational decision” and came after officials rejected an application from Kebatu for a scheme that has offered up to £1,500 in resettlement grants in the past. The government said the alternative was a “slower and more expensive process”, which could have included further detention, a new flight potentially costing thousands of pounds and fighting subsequent legal claims, they said. Hadush Kebatu was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday More