Blog
Putting austerity in the dock: how to fight cuts by legal means
16 May 2012: Lee Godfrey explains how the Surrey Libraries Action Movement successfully challenged library cuts.
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Foodbank: our biggest client group now is people on low incomes
14 May 2012: As time goes on, more people on low incomes are struggling to meet housing and food bills.
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Why fiscal health depends on fairer taxation
12 May 2012: Why a shift to a more progressive system would have wider economic benefits - especially on the health of public finances.
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New campaign and NHS structure guides on False Economy
10 May 2012: Fight privatisation. Influence the NHS. We have new campaign guides to help you.
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Beyond Austerity: A Growth Plan for Europe
7 May 2012: Duncan Weldon reports on a Beyond Austerity Rome conference and austerity's failure to deliver recovery.
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The NHS, private patients and two-tier health
4 May 2012: The Health and Social Care Act opens the door for NHS hospitals to bring in a two-tier health system.
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A glimmer of hope: we can stop the privatisation of the NHS
1 May 2012: Campaigner Caroline Molloy explains how Gloucestershire people stopped a major NHS privatisation decision.
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Keep our NHS Public Gloucestershire campaign guides
1 May 2012: How to get information from NHS decisionmakers and how to influence them.
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The implications of contributory ESA time limits
30 Apr 2012: In this post, Louise Whittle explains the effects that the new ESA eligibility time-limit will have on her.
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Video: The battle over Derbyshire county council youth services
29 Apr 2012: Service users and local people fight a Derbyshire county council proposal to cut youth service budgets and outsource.
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GDP: one chart and recession
25 Apr 2012: Richard Exell on the dual dangers of recession and low growth.
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NHS and social care cuts - False Economy updates
24 Apr 2012: An update on some of the cuts information we've entered into the site recently.
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Latest Housing Benefit figures – £4bn over target and PRS largesse
20 Apr 2012: Joe Halewood argues that it is time for a radical rethink of housing benefit policy and the private rental sector's role
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NHS stone soup
17 Apr 2012: How can groups co-ordinate the next phase of opposition to the Health and Social Care Act?
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This week: Commons considers Lords amendments to Legal Aid Bill
16 Apr 2012: We need to contact MPs to make sure the Lords' amendments are backed now.
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ESA and my experience of skills training ….. A4E style!
14 Apr 2012: A4e training and losing ESA from the end of April: the realities of welfare reform.
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Video: why we need the NHS and why we need DLA
12 Apr 2012: More service users talk about the NHS, care, failing Atos assessments and welfare reform changes
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Action continues as people fight for libraries
9 Apr 2012: How campaigners continue to fight for local libraries.
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Protest at workfare with a Workfare Walk of Shame on your High Street
5 Apr 2012: Kings Heath Against Workfare explains how a walk of shame helps to spread the word about workfare.
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Where to now with the NHS?
3 Apr 2012: How joining the organisations that are being set up could make the NHS work for our benefit.
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New report: MPs will struggle to help constituents after legal aid changes
2 Apr 2012: Young Legal Aid Lawyers visit MPs and constituents to find out how changes will impact
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Government reviews NHS constitution and involves Virgin Care
30 Mar 2012: The NHS constitution needs strengthening to help patients – but this is looking increasingly unlikely
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False Economy research highlights GP conflict of interest risk
29 Mar 2012: Guardian front-page story on private share fears based on our research
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The case for austerity among the rich
27 Mar 2012: Professor Danny Dorling of the University of Sheffield publishes his new paper.
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Coming soon … MPs Direct!
26 Mar 2012: Has your MP thought through the consequences of voting for legal aid cuts?
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Occupation and protest: documenting social unrest - join the debate
23 Mar 2012: A debate at the Museum of London on the anniversary of the March For The Alternative
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The ongoing fight for care
21 Mar 2012: As the cuts bite, people with disabilities face challenges to stay in their own homes.
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Say no to tax avoidance for public service providers
20 Mar 2012: Some of the companies profiting from the privatisation of public services are the least ethical.
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A Tale of Two Barnets: film premiere
15 Mar 2012: A documentary about people in Barnet trying to cope with public sector cuts.
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The chaos for families caught in care cuts
13 Mar 2012: The first in our series of interviews with those dealing first-hand with swingeing cuts to benefits and local services.
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How NHS reforms take GPs away from their patients – get the full data
13 Mar 2012: Exclusive: Our research shows government reforms are costing the NHS millions in agency cover.
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Three ways out of the NHS bill for the government
12 Mar 2012: How the government can step back.
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Speak Up For Libraries: lobby parliament on Tuesday
11 Mar 2012: Join library users from across the UK and tell MPs that supporting libraries is essential.
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Workfare: Don’t think a job will mean you’re safe
8 Mar 2012: Another nasty piece of work compulsion looms – ‘conditionality’ for people receiving in-work benefits.
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Vital legal aid bill amendments for discussion
7 Mar 2012: An update from Justice for All on the legal aid bill being debated this week.
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NHS: Ask peers to vote against raising private patient limits
5 Mar 2012: How you can help to stop the raising of the Private Patient Income Cap.
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Factsheet: 5 things you need to know about the legal aid bill
2 Mar 2012: The legal aid bill is the government's next legislative disaster-in-waiting. Read our essential factsheet.
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Move your money month starts today
1 Mar 2012: Move your money month begins – pledge to move your money now!
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Workfare: why the 50% “success” rate is no success at all
28 Feb 2012:
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Birmingham council to decide cuts
28 Feb 2012: Birmingham City Council to vote through £100m in cuts. Here's what we won and what we're losing.
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Benefit fraud - the levels are very low
27 Feb 2012: Official figures show the low levels of benefit fraud
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Cameron’s new target - how quickly he can privatise NHS care
25 Feb 2012: The government wants to see the percentage of patients choosing private providers increase.
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Living on the edge: pay in local government
22 Feb 2012: Women and part time workers are the majority of local government workers - and most vulnerable to the pay squeeze.
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Welfare turns into workfare - but unpaid work won’t solve the jobs crisis
20 Feb 2012: Data from programmes continues to cause concerns about workfare.
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5 things you need to know… download our new factsheets
17 Feb 2012: Introducing our series of essential, no-nonsense guides – starting with the deficit and the NHS bill
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Breaking the NHS: reckless reforms will steal the nation’s health
15 Feb 2012:
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US women in workfare talk about their lives
14 Feb 2012: New York workfare workers talk about the programme and their experience of the sanctions process.
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All in this together?
12 Feb 2012: People who can least afford it are bearing the brunt of unemployment and cuts in real wages.
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QE: welcome but more needs to be done
10 Feb 2012: Is QE enough to get the economy moving again?
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Key dangers in the Health and Social Care bill
8 Feb 2012: How the bill opens the NHS up to privatisation and closes its democratic structures down.
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Research reveals that reforms to legal aid will not generate substantial savings
7 Feb 2012: An update on the costs of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill.
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The move your money campaign
5 Feb 2012: How you can get big banking to think again.
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New report highlights effect of cuts on services for domestic violence victims
1 Feb 2012: False Economy data shows impact of funding cuts on vital services
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NHS reform: the government wilfully ignores experts
30 Jan 2012: This bill is not about access.
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February and March protests at NHS changes, welfare reform and council cuts
29 Jan 2012: Where people are organising against cuts and why.
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Lords failed to improve the NHS Bill – we must step up the campaign
25 Jan 2012: The government won every vote in the Lords but one. We must make our voices heard.
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Introducing the Austerity Curve
23 Jan 2012: Duncan Weldon introduces the Austerity Curve, which suggests there is a point at which government cuts increase the deficit
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How US workfare punished minorities and the poor
20 Jan 2012: Kate Belgrave says flawed and punitive US workfare is no model for the UK
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Health bill could herald a new wave of hospital charges
18 Jan 2012: The NHS bill makes new charges more likely. How will this affect "patient choice"?
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Debt is demonised – but here’s why we need it
17 Jan 2012: Public debt is necessary and not always bad – the alternative is unemployment and stagnation
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Council cuts deepen in 2012
16 Jan 2012: Kate Belgrave's essential survey of upcoming local government budget cuts
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The cruel truth about US workfare
11 Jan 2012: Unemployed welfare recipients have been forced to do the work once done by paid employees.
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Watching workfare: new series
10 Jan 2012: Our new series will take a close look at government "welfare-to-work" programs
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Crowdsourced research reveals strong opposition to disability benefit reform
9 Jan 2012: Freedom of Information-based research finds that Government misled MPs and Peers over hostility to disability benefit reform
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Lansley is scared to publish his own department’s list of risks to the NHS
6 Jan 2012: The government must come clean and publish the full NHS Risk Register
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Video: What’s the point of Nick Clegg?
5 Jan 2012: The fabulous Captain SKA asks the question that's on everyone's lips.
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Legal challenge to West Lancashire council cuts
4 Jan 2012: Ground-breaking action would challenge whole cuts process rather than just the effect on an individual service.
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Stop the rail fare rip-off – join #FareFail on 3 January
3 Jan 2012: Our trains are already the most expensive in Europe – it's time to say enough is enough.
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Our 10 most popular posts from 2011
30 Dec 2011: Our best-read posts from the last 12 months.
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All pain, no gain: forecasts predict longer dole queues and higher deficit
21 Dec 2011: Duncan Weldon dissects the grim new forecasts compiled by the Treasury.
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My gym has hiked fees for disabled users by 2000%. It will save nothing
13 Dec 2011: Exercise plays an important part in preventing me from breaking my bones – but I can no longer afford my gym
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Cameron’s all-out assault on public sector workers
9 Dec 2011: Cutting pensions is just one part of the government's attack on public sector workers, writes Richard Blogger
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Sign Pat’s petition against cuts to disability services
6 Dec 2011: Pat Onion, who is both disabled and her husband's carer, explains why she launched her petition
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How inequality fuelled the crash – and is halting recovery
1 Dec 2011: Consumers have around £100 billion less in their pockets today than if the national cake was shared as it was in the late 1970s, writes Stewart Lansley
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We can’t go on like this. I’m cutting the NHS, not the deficit
30 Nov 2011: Yesterday's disastrous autumn statement showed that the government's cuts strategy is all pain and no gain.
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NHS hospital cuts that undermine Cameron’s claims
29 Nov 2011: While Cameron claims he isn't cutting the NHS, the Department of Health admits it is cutting payments to hospitals.
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Fighting inequality: our patriotic duty
27 Nov 2011: Britain's wealth divide highlights the meaningless of government claims that ‘we're all in this together’
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Don’t be old, don’t be ill: one year of council cuts
25 Nov 2011: Kate Belgrave surveys a year of council cuts that have often hit society's most vulnerable
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False Economy’s big birthday benefit
23 Nov 2011: Help us celebrate one year of False Economy on Thursday 1 December.
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Survey reveals mass exit threat to public sector pensions
21 Nov 2011: A mass exodus from public sector pensions due to government changes would lead to more poverty and higher costs.
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Let’s work together – to get this single to number one
20 Nov 2011: Let's Work Together is released today by a group of music-loving public sector workers - let's get it to number one
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Don’t let the cuts turn back time on women’s equality
18 Nov 2011: On average, women earn less, own less, and are more likely to work and retire in poverty than men. The cuts are making things worse.
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How privatisation drives NHS pensions into deficit
17 Nov 2011: Transferring staff to the private sector won't just cut employees' future pensions. It will increase the government’s liability for existing pensioners
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Women and the Cuts: A toolkit for campaigners
16 Nov 2011: The TUC and Coventry Women's Voices have produced an invaluable toolkit for challenging the disproportionate effect of cuts on women
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This is what austerity looks like
15 Nov 2011: ‘What you thought could never happen is happening’ – author and geographer Danny Dorling on life after the cuts
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Wandsworth residents didn’t ‘volunteer’ to run their library. They had no choice
11 Nov 2011: A radio debate showed not only why people volunteer in libraries but the problems they face and, sadly, how they are being used by politicians.
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Circle has been unable to make a profit. How will it turn around a hospital?
10 Nov 2011: Key questions for Circle Health, the private firm taking over a Cambridgeshire NHS trust
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Financial transparency bill will help tackle the tax dodgers
10 Nov 2011: Caroline Lucas's Tax and Financial Transparency Bill is due for a second reading on 25 November – but it needs our support.
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Don’t be fooled by these pilot personal healthcare budgets
4 Nov 2011: Pilot personal healthcare budgets offer acupuncture, massage and smartphones. The real thing may turn out to be very different indeed.
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Driving the moneychangers from the temple: a technical guide
1 Nov 2011: A cunning plan to use the government's Localism Bill to declare London's Pasternoster Square a community asset, purchase it … and drive the moneychangers from the temple.
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Reclaim the City: Restore democracy to the Square Mile
31 Oct 2011: The Corporation of London has given St Paul's protestors 48 hours to leave. But it's time we challenged the City's chiefs
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Plan B starts here
30 Oct 2011: An important new report sets out an alternative to George Osborne's failed economics. Co-author Howard Reed outlines its main themes.
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NHS Bill lets GPs restrict treatment. So what happens if you can’t pay?
28 Oct 2011: If Andrew Lansley were to make patients pay for blood tests there would be uproar. The NHS Bill lets him pass this decision to GPs.
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By undermining social solidarity, health bill puts NHS at mercy of EU competition law
23 Oct 2011: Cross-subsidies in the NHS help ensure a comprehensive service. Any Qualified Provider will end that.
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One in five council-run bus services have been cut
21 Oct 2011: Freedom of Information requests reveal scale of damage to public transport
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Photo essay: Barnet’s disastrous privatisation of elderly care
18 Oct 2011: How low-paid careworkers fought for decent conditions and a better service.
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Tax haven responses underline need for government action
17 Oct 2011: Responses to ActionAid's investigation show why the Treasury must tighten tax rules. Instead it proposes to relax them.
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It is easy to dismiss the “Occupy” protests as a radical fringe. But they are gaining support
15 Oct 2011: The wave of protests last winter wasn't a one-off, writes Adam Ramsay. The discontent is growing.
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Disabled people are being hit hard. Join us to protest on 22 October
14 Oct 2011: Having promised to protect the most vulnerable, the Government is pressing ahead with swingeing cuts to benefits and services vital to disabled people.
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The myth of a ‘community right to buy’
13 Oct 2011: The Localism Bill makes no mention of a ‘community right to buy’ threatened local facilities – but the right to bid is under threat
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