Self-employed people in Manchester voice their concerns on the aid package announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak. The coronavirus pandemic lockdown in the UK has brought economic hardships to many, but the self-employed were ignored in the earlier government aid packages. Over the last 20 years, self-employment has been a growing area of the workforce. In […]
Disabled people’s fury at Conservative party conference
“You are responsible for mass suffering and mass deaths and we will not let you forget it”. Said a speaker at the Disabled People Against Cuts protest outside the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, with each speaker telling personal stories of suffering and neglect by the system. Also protesting this on an array of issues […]
Food Poverty Action Plan aims to tackle hidden crisis in GM
The latest estimates are that 620,000 people in Greater Manchester are living in poverty, and struggle to put food on the table. Of those, around 200,000 are children experiencing food poverty. £30 billion per year has been cut from welfare budgets since 2010. By 2020, Local councils will have lost 60% of central government funding […]
Tenant rights campaigners victorious over government plans to scrap ‘no-fault evictions’
A coalition of housing activists are celebrating a campaign victory as the government announced its plans yesterday to abolish “no-fault evictions” under Section 21 of the 1988 Housing Act and introduce open-ended tenancies for private renters in England. Currently, Section 21 allows landlords to evict tenants without giving a reason, after a fixed term tenancy […]
Victims of an unjust housing system must not be targeted by Public Space Protection Orders
The councils is holding a consultation which could result in the implementation of a PSPO that adversely affect the homeless (see previous report here), including prohibitions on begging and sleeping in tents. The consultation is open to accept public statements until 8 April 2019: Recent proposals from Manchester City Council to bring in a […]
Rough sleeping increases 34% across Manchester in a year
Despite the well publicised efforts of the Greater Manchester mayor and Manchester City Council to reduce rough sleeping, the Manchester street count in 2018 has seen a 34% rise compared to 2017. The street count is a single night snapshot, carried out between 1 October and 30 November, of people sleeping rough in a local […]
Manchester is hit hard by the overwhelming UK debt crisis
Britain is in the grip of a personal debt crisis, with an increasing numbers of families being caught in spiraling debt traps. Unsecured, non-mortgage, household debt is now at £239 billion higher than it was before the financial crash in 2008. When it comes to those struggling with debt, Manchester is hit particularly hard with […]
Man given eight-month sanction for missing an appointment. Can we please stop sanctioning people?
Guest article from, anti-poverty activist and journalist, Charlotte Hughes: As you may have heard Esther Mcvey has resigned from her role as the DWP minister because she doesn’t agree with the deal put forward by Theresa May, she actually stated that she wouldn’t be able to look her constituents in the eye. I found this […]
How austerity is killing legal aid and restricting access to justice
We often see law as the means of pursing justice in cases of criminal action, the violence of an assault or the calculated theft of property. But it also concerns what we consider daily issues, our right to welfare while unemployed, to have a safe roof over our head and the right to live in […]
The hidden shame of period poverty
Half the population of the world are women. It is, therefore, safe to say that a large proportion of that population have periods. So, why is the issue of menstrual care still so taboo? Why do people still feel awkward and embarrassed by their period and feel that it should be something that should be […]