Category Archives: Welfare Reform

A revealing exchange

Posted on December 10, 2014 by ianchisnall

  On Monday afternoon two well educated and well paid men had a conversation amongst their peers in a place of great scrutiny, but due to the difficulty in observing all such conversations, this one could so easily have been missed. … Continue reading →

Posted in Charities, Parliament and Democracy, Welfare Reform | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Foodbank Britain and other problems

Posted on December 8, 2014 by ianchisnall

One of the tragedies inherent in todays report on how dependent the UK has become on charity run foodbanks and other food distribution schemes such as FareShare (I have written extensively about the FareShare scheme I founded in Brighton & Hove) is that … Continue reading →

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The men who stripped the roof

Posted on November 19, 2014 by ianchisnall

One of the regular phrases applied to the Brown/Blair Governments by the coalition when first arriving in office was that they failed to mend the roof whilst the sun was shining. The incomers made these accusations filled with confidence (or … Continue reading →

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Please add your voice

Posted on November 17, 2014 by ianchisnall

As part of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, the Government decided to remove a pot of money called the Discretionary Social Fund or DSF. This fund which was introduced in 1987 and distributed to Local Government across the country as … Continue reading →

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Government policies are a barrier to economic growth

Posted on August 11, 2014 by ianchisnall

It is not hard to find evidence of MPs who do not understand the realities of life in their own constituencies, but in this case a much deeper issue lies behind the comments. A month ago MP for Peterborough Stewart Jackson took … Continue reading →

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Universal chaos

Posted on July 8, 2014 by ianchisnall

It seems inconceivable after 4 years of the Governments legislative programme that a major item of their welfare reforms has still not been signed off by the Treasury. The MPs who were involved in the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee … Continue reading →

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You spent all the housekeeping!

Posted on July 2, 2014 by ianchisnall

I was born into a generation when few people had joint bank accounts and in many homes the Father figure would hand over a sum of money each week to his partner in order for the family to eat and … Continue reading →

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Dear Conor and friends

Posted on June 14, 2014 by ianchisnall

Yesterday I wrote about the rather sorry tale of an MP complaining to the Charity Commission about the work of a charity, on the grounds that it was behaving too politically. This is of course in the context of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Charities, Lobbying Bill, Parliament and Democracy, Welfare Reform | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The dilemma of leadership

Posted on June 13, 2014 by ianchisnall

The decision by Oxfam to critique the work of the Government using this poster seems to have smoked out at least one thin skinned MP. The news that Conor Burns, MP for Bournemouth West has complained to the charity regulator that Oxfam are … Continue reading →

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Breadline Kids

Posted on June 10, 2014 by ianchisnall

Last nights Dispatches programme on Channel 4 was very sober viewing. It provided for all of us who have never visited a foodbank a snapshot account of three families who have been forced to turn to one and the circumstances that … Continue reading →

Posted in Charities, Parliament and Democracy, Welfare Reform | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments