10:00AM GMT 01 Jan 2013
Benefit increases far outstrip private sector pay, DWP figures show
"Benefit claimants have seen their handouts far outstrip increases in average private sector pay for those in work, figures show."
Wednesday 2 January 2013
Benefit rises outstrip private sector pay, says government
Benefit wars: IDS on offensive before uprating vote
"Labour party accuses Tory-led coalition of being out of touch with reality over plans to stem rise in working-age benefits."
12:17pm UK, Wednesday 02 January 2013
Benefits Rise 'Almost Double Salary Increase'
"Out-of-work benefits increased by 20% in five years, compared to a rise of 12% in the private sector, official figures say."
Wednesday 02 Jan 2013
FactCheck: are benefits rising faster than pay?
"So from what Mr Duncan Smith has said, he’s correct – benefits from 2007 have gone up by 20 per cent, and private sector wages by just under 12 per cent.
However, it’s worth bearing in mind that the period he talks about includes the recession and the credit crunch, when private sector wages were badly hit.
FactCheck went back further, by nine or 10 years or so, to a time before the recession and depressed earnings. Incidentally, this seems to be roughly the way the Labour Party has approached these figures as well.
That found that from April 2003 to April 2012, JSA for a single person above 25 went from £54.65 a week to £71 – up by 30 per cent.
Over the same period, private sector weekly wages rose from £351 in April 2003, to £468 – an increase of 33 per cent. Which is high, but not as high as the pay rise the public sector saw over that period – of 35 per cent, from £355 to £481."
3 January, 2013 - 18:09
Are wages failing to keep pace with rising prices and benefits?
"All three claims about the relative speed of rises to wages, benefit claims and rail fares can be substantiated, however each can be measured in different ways, which means a plethora of different interpretations can be supported, given the right time period and metric."
2 January 2013 Last updated at 14:57
Battle over plan to cap benefits ahead of Commons vote
"Labour, which will fight the 1% cap, says that jobseekers allowance has risen by 32% over the past decade, whereas wages have gone up by 36%."
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02 Wednesday
Jan 2013
Why do governments only ever quote statistics that mislead?
"According to financial journalist Paul Lewis on Twitter, this means unemployment benefits have risen by just £11.85 per week, while average private sector pay has risen by £49 a week.".
"IDS is living in a world of his own, though. He’s arguing for a cap of one per cent on benefit rises, for the next three years – effectively removing six per cent of jobseekers’ income by the end of that period."
Overall Benefit Cap – It should be abandoned not just delayed
Welfare Cuts Row, Lies and ‘Statistics’
Is IDS Sick or just Vile?
Wednesday, 1 February 2012 6:21 PM
Resorting to the rulebook: Ministers bypass welfare clash
"Ministers are using parliamentary rules to prevent the Lords causing further setbacks to the coalition's welfare reforms. Employment minister told MPs he intended to invoke the Commons' financial privilege, as ministers sought to reverse seven Lords defeats to the welfare reform bill.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne told politics.co.uk that the opposition was working with parliamentary authorities and lawyers to force a vote on its proposals for a regional benefit cap.
"We think they've crossed the basic line of British decency and they're trying to use financial privilege to prevent it being reopened again," he said."
Published 02 January 2013 8:43
Memo to Duncan Smith: low wages are not an argument for cutting benefits
"The fact that benefits have risen faster than wages [sic] is an argument for higher wages, not lower benefits."
11th January, 2013
Wages and welfare benefits are not comparable
"The Coalition’s line on benefits will not hold water. The Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith claims it is unreasonable for benefits to rise in line with inflation when wages are not doing so. This ignores two things: what it costs to live even at a subsistence level and the effects of those in work drawing benefits, especially working tax credits."
Nigel
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