Displaying items by tag: Amber Rudd

The next stage of Universal Credit rollout will be scaled back, amid concerns it has made an estimated 3.2 million households worse off. It has also run over budget, is years behind schedule, and is said to have forced claimants into destitution and in some cases even prostitution. Others say they have been left to rely on foodbanks. The Trussell Trust, which runs national foodbanks, said it welcomed the news but added, ‘It will come too late for the thousands making new UC claims over the coming year. As an urgent priority, the 5+ week wait for a first payment must end’. When she started as work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, said she would listen ‘very carefully’ to concerns. She admitted the system could be better, and promised to ‘learn from errors’ and adjust the system where needed. See also

‘For the past ten years I’ve been a police response officer. A colleague, summing up our lives, recently wrote: “Last week I was hit, spat at and punched. There wasn't one day that I ate my lunch. I held a man's hand who had just lost his wife. I took a child from his father who was wielding a knife. I pulled a girl who was mentally ill off a bridge. I locked up a worker who had nicked from the till. I persuaded a battered woman finally to speak - after seeing her every day, week after week. This is our job and we are all proud to do it.” We are proud. And that’s why we work earlies, lates and night shifts. But I want to challenge a policy that puts the public and the police at risk. It’s called “single crewing” and it means that officers like me are sent out on jobs alone and face being attacked. Our team of 24 will have three double-crewed cars during most shifts: the rest of us will be on our own. That’s why I’ve started a petition calling on Amber Rudd to stop this.’