Latest news with #socialSecurity
Washington Post
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Cuban minister faces backlash for saying there are no beggars in Cuba
HAVANA — A Cuban minister sparked criticism Tuesday, including from the president, after saying that there are no beggars in Cuba, only people disguised as such, and suggesting that those who clean windshields at crossroads have an 'easy' life. Cuba's Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, made the comments on Monday before deputies in a National Assembly committee. They went viral, prompting calls for Feitós' impeachment and a wave of criticism in a country experiencing a tough economic situation in recent years.
The Independent
03-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
NI Communities Minister attacks ‘shameful' welfare reform plans
The Government's 'shameful' welfare reform plans will end up increasing the social security bill in Northern Ireland rather than generating any savings, the Communities Minister has said. Gordon Lyons said the Labour Government had made an 'incredible mess' of its welfare reform agenda. On a separate issue related to the benefits system, Mr Lyons said he had received confirmation from the Treasury that Stormont could potentially share in savings achieved by any Stormont-devised plan to target fraud around benefit payments in Northern Ireland. The minister said he would now proceed with a business case on a fraud prevention plan with the hope of getting it on the agenda of the Executive for consideration. At an appearance before his Assembly scrutiny committee, the minister also said that the Government's U-turn on eligibility for winter fuel payments for pensioners would result in 86% of pensioners in Northern Ireland (288,000) receiving the payment this coming winter – a proportion higher than the UK average of 80%. Facing questions from MLAs at Stormont on Thursday, Mr Lyons also defended his own department's recently published draft poverty strategy, a document that has faced criticism from several community and civic society organisations. The DUP minister's appearance came days after the UK Government was forced into a late climbdown on a central plank of its welfare reform agenda in a bid to avert a major backbench rebellion. In a late concession on Tuesday, only 90 minutes before MPs were to vote on the Bill, ministers shelved plans to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment (Pip), with any changes now only coming after a review of the benefit. Mr Lyons was scathing of the Government's approach while giving evidence to the committee. 'I think it is important that I place on record just how appalled I am by this Labour Government and how they have conducted themselves over the last number of months,' he said. 'I believe their approach has been shameful. I believe that it has caused significant stress for many in our society, even those who I believe would never have been affected by the changes that have been proposed and those that perhaps would have been. 'It has caused a huge amount of stress.' The minister added: 'We're at very early stages of assessment, but we believe ultimately that it will end up costing, it will not create any saving at all in Northern Ireland. 'So, I think that that has been an incredible mess, they've made a real hames of it, if I'm being honest.' On the winter fuel payments, Mr Lyons said: 'There are 336,000 pensioners in Northern Ireland and HMRC are now estimating that 86% or 288,000 will receive the winter fuel payment in 25/26 because they have an income of less than £35,000. 'Twenty per cent will not receive it in the UK as a whole, that is only 14% in Northern Ireland. Again, another mess by this Government. It was inevitable that they would have had to have changed course.' The minister said he had received confirmation on Thursday that Northern Ireland could potentially have a share of savings generated by any welfare fraud measures taken by the Executive. 'If there are savings through us tackling welfare fraud and error that are certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury will consider providing for us a share of those savings,' he said. 'And those savings are massive. 'A very, very small amount of money that we put in (to introduce fraud prevention measures) and you can get incredible savings from those. 'So that could be a net benefit to Northern Ireland. We will be progressing that business case. 'I have a paper with the Executive. I hope it will get on the agenda, because I think that could be very, very important.' Mr Lyons faced several questions on his draft anti-poverty strategy. The minister said he respected those who had criticised it, but made clear he did not agree with several of the claims that had been made about the plan lacking ambition and targets. He said he remained open during the public consultation phase to listening to alternative proposals. SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan put it to the minister that Sinn Fein First Minister Michelle O'Neill had appeared to distance herself from his proposed strategy. Mr Lyons said he never encountered any 'push back' from Executive colleagues when the draft proposals were presented to ministerial colleagues for consideration. 'I think it's safe to say there was not a lengthy debate around this issue, and I certainly left that Executive meeting believing there was good consensus on the way forward, and that we were open to consultation on this and to listening to what people had to say, and that there was broad agreement on what we had in front of us,' he said. 'I listen to what others have to say. I will do that through the consultation period, but I was not getting push-back at all within the Executive and I believe that there was good unity among Executive colleagues. 'I understand people can come under a bit of pressure, and they can change their positions, or they want to be seen to be on the right side, but I've taken on board all of the criticisms that have been made of this, and we will certainly listen to those. 'I believe a lot of those don't have a basis in reality. 'I hope I've explained and I've reassured the committee today about the approach that I am taking. 'But if anybody inside or outside the Executive have changes that they want to make to that that they haven't expressed to me so far, I'm open to listening to those, but I hope that they will also be willing to provide the funding that is necessary if it comes at an additional cost as well.'
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NI Communities Minister attacks ‘shameful' welfare reform plans
The Government's 'shameful' welfare reform plans will end up increasing the social security bill in Northern Ireland rather than generating any savings, the Communities Minister has said. Gordon Lyons said the Labour Government had made an 'incredible mess' of its welfare reform agenda. On a separate issue related to the benefits system, Mr Lyons said he had received confirmation from the Treasury that Stormont could potentially share in savings achieved by any Stormont-devised plan to target fraud around benefit payments in Northern Ireland. The minister said he would now proceed with a business case on a fraud prevention plan with the hope of getting it on the agenda of the Executive for consideration. At an appearance before his Assembly scrutiny committee, the minister also said that the Government's U-turn on eligibility for winter fuel payments for pensioners would result in 86% of pensioners in Northern Ireland (288,000) receiving the payment this coming winter – a proportion higher than the UK average of 80%. Facing questions from MLAs at Stormont on Thursday, Mr Lyons also defended his own department's recently published draft poverty strategy, a document that has faced criticism from several community and civic society organisations. The DUP minister's appearance came days after the UK Government was forced into a late climbdown on a central plank of its welfare reform agenda in a bid to avert a major backbench rebellion. In a late concession on Tuesday, only 90 minutes before MPs were to vote on the Bill, ministers shelved plans to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment (Pip), with any changes now only coming after a review of the benefit. Mr Lyons was scathing of the Government's approach while giving evidence to the committee. 'I think it is important that I place on record just how appalled I am by this Labour Government and how they have conducted themselves over the last number of months,' he said. 'I believe their approach has been shameful. I believe that it has caused significant stress for many in our society, even those who I believe would never have been affected by the changes that have been proposed and those that perhaps would have been. 'It has caused a huge amount of stress.' The minister added: 'We're at very early stages of assessment, but we believe ultimately that it will end up costing, it will not create any saving at all in Northern Ireland. 'So, I think that that has been an incredible mess, they've made a real hames of it, if I'm being honest.' 🗣️ Minister @GordonLyons1 is calling on you to take part. Help shape @NIExecutive's Anti-Poverty Strategy by sharing your ideas and experiences. Let's work together to tackle Poverty in society. 🔗 — Communities NI (@CommunitiesNI) July 2, 2025 On the winter fuel payments, Mr Lyons said: 'There are 336,000 pensioners in Northern Ireland and HMRC are now estimating that 86% or 288,000 will receive the winter fuel payment in 25/26 because they have an income of less than £35,000. 'Twenty per cent will not receive it in the UK as a whole, that is only 14% in Northern Ireland. Again, another mess by this Government. It was inevitable that they would have had to have changed course.' The minister said he had received confirmation on Thursday that Northern Ireland could potentially have a share of savings generated by any welfare fraud measures taken by the Executive. 'If there are savings through us tackling welfare fraud and error that are certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury will consider providing for us a share of those savings,' he said. 'And those savings are massive. 'A very, very small amount of money that we put in (to introduce fraud prevention measures) and you can get incredible savings from those. 'So that could be a net benefit to Northern Ireland. We will be progressing that business case. 'I have a paper with the Executive. I hope it will get on the agenda, because I think that could be very, very important.' Mr Lyons faced several questions on his draft anti-poverty strategy. The minister said he respected those who had criticised it, but made clear he did not agree with several of the claims that had been made about the plan lacking ambition and targets. He said he remained open during the public consultation phase to listening to alternative proposals. SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan put it to the minister that Sinn Fein First Minister Michelle O'Neill had appeared to distance herself from his proposed strategy. Mr Lyons said he never encountered any 'push back' from Executive colleagues when the draft proposals were presented to ministerial colleagues for consideration. 'I think it's safe to say there was not a lengthy debate around this issue, and I certainly left that Executive meeting believing there was good consensus on the way forward, and that we were open to consultation on this and to listening to what people had to say, and that there was broad agreement on what we had in front of us,' he said. 'I listen to what others have to say. I will do that through the consultation period, but I was not getting push-back at all within the Executive and I believe that there was good unity among Executive colleagues. 'I understand people can come under a bit of pressure, and they can change their positions, or they want to be seen to be on the right side, but I've taken on board all of the criticisms that have been made of this, and we will certainly listen to those. 'I believe a lot of those don't have a basis in reality. 'I hope I've explained and I've reassured the committee today about the approach that I am taking. 'But if anybody inside or outside the Executive have changes that they want to make to that that they haven't expressed to me so far, I'm open to listening to those, but I hope that they will also be willing to provide the funding that is necessary if it comes at an additional cost as well.'
The Independent
01-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
From PIP to poverty: the striking numbers behind the welfare debate
Passionate debate about reforms to social security for those with long-term illness or disabilities throws up many claims and counterclaims about the health of the nation and Britain's welfare state. A broad national consensus exists in favour of 'welfare reform' – but that's about as far as agreement goes, as shown by the deep divisions in the parliamentary Labour Party. A starting point might be to face up to the sheer scale of the challenges, and try to put them into some sort of fair context. How much do sickness and disability benefits cost? These are some of the easier numbers: incapacity benefit (not the main focus of the current debate) provides an income to those who find it difficult to work due to ill health. In 2023-24 the government spent £24.9bn on this. It is being replaced by employment and support allowance (ESA) for new claims. Disability benefits cover extra costs of daily living and mobility associated with disability and long-term health conditions, regardless of whether an individual is working or not; these are not means-tested but are assessed under a points-based system that many say is inhumane. Payments are made under the historic disability living allowance, which is being gradually replaced by the personal independence payment (PIP); these amount to some £19bn a year. The government was seeking to cut £5bn from this figure – quite a chunk for recipients, although tiny in the context of total public spending of some £1,300bn (or £1.3 trillion). Thus the combined cost of incapacity and disability benefits and payments is approaching £50bn – roughly the same as Britain's defence budget, hence the claim of 'warfare vs welfare'. But the state pension remains much the biggest – and politically protected – element of the wider social security system, costing about £145bn. Are the costs going to go up? Very much so. Some 1,000 people a day go on to PIP. Even after the government's proposed reforms, spending is projected to jump by roughly 50 per cent a year to about £70bn in 2030 – an increase alone equivalent to the government's research and development budget. Depending on what emerges from the review of eligibility, the numbers on PIP are set to increase in any case. The last estimate was that in England and Wales, on the previous policy, they would go from 2.7 million now to 4.3 million in 2030. What's the context? A slow-growth economy with multiple demands on the public sector. However, it's important to retain perspective: even under old forecasts made before Labour's proposed cuts, the cost of all working-age benefits would represent just 2.2 per cent of the national economy by the end of the decade, up from 1.7 per cent now (roughly about £2 in every £100 the British economy generates). Why are the claims rising so rapidly? That's contentious. Broadly accepted as factors, to varying degrees, are: an ageing population; a sharply increased diagnosis of mental health conditions, especially among the young; the cost of living crisis leading to depression, poorer diets and health; the lingering effects of long covid; people moving from ESA to PIP; and the technical effects of increasing the state retirement pension age. Why is mental health worsening? It might not be. It could be that years of campaigning to increase awareness of mental health issues and achieving 'parity of esteem' with physical health within the NHS has made it more acceptable and visible, with little underlying change. Covid-19 seems to have been responsible for a spike. Some figures, as diverse as Nigel Farage and Wes Streeting, attribute it partly to over-diagnosis; others blame fads and fashion. Can someone get £800 a month on a PIP? Almost. They would have to be severely disabled and need help with washing themselves and transportation in order to qualify for the 'enhanced' living allowance (£110.40 per week) and mobility element (£77.05 per week) for a combined monthly total of £749.80. This is supposed to cover all extra living costs and, if you have savings of more than £23,250, pay for domiciliary care by a local authority. These payments are non-taxable and are on top of any other income. The lowest amount is £295.60 per month. If you're unemployed, you may also qualify for ESA – up to £92.50 per week if you're over 25. There's also help with housing through universal credit, up to a cap of £1,229.42 per month outside London or £1,413.92 in the capital. Can it be true that one in four people in the UK are disabled? Yes, but not all qualify for disability benefits. Latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that the percentage of people reporting a disability (albeit self-declared and not independently certified or on benefits), has risen from 19 per cent in 2013 to 24 per cent in 2024 and stands at approximately 16.1 million – roughly 24 per cent of the populace – and is skewed towards the old. About one in 10 of the working age population receives either disability or incapacity benefit. Does that mean Britain the sick man of the world? International comparisons are hard to make because different definitions make it hard to compare data, but the UK rate appears lower than, say, Denmark (34 per cent), or the United States (29 per cent) yet higher than China (6 per cent) and South Africa (8 per cent). Such data should be treated with extreme caution. Much of any difference will be explained by the age profile of a population. Do disabled people outnumber the Labour majority in some constituencies? Yes. In Paulette Hamilton's seat of Birmingham Erdington, a typical post-industrial, poorer area, there are some 11,899 recipients of PIP against her majority of 7,019. The figures are distorted a little by the low general election turnout (44 per cent) and depressed employment prospects, but such facts must concentrate the political mind. That said, the Labour MPs defying their whips and risking their political careers seem genuinely moved by what's happening. Marie Tidball was reportedly left in tears after speaking to the chancellor about the welfare bill; it is not what any of them came into politics to do. Will more disabled people suffer poverty? Yes, at least for now. The DWP says 150,000 more people will be pushed into relative poverty by the current benefit cuts, compared to 250,000 as forecast before Sir Keir Starmer's first U-turn last week. 'Relative poverty' here is defined as 60 per cent of median (typical) British household income after housing costs in 2030 as a result of the modelled changes to social security. The cash figure currently equates to roughly less than £150 a week for a single person, and under £400 a week for a couple with two small children. However, ministers say a number of those affected by the planned reforms will in fact be lifted out of poverty by extra help with finding paid work, for which the budget is being quadrupled to £1bn. How many will benefit from that spending is unknown; it is awaiting assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Zawya
27-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Top 10 highest-taxed countries in 2025
The world's highest-taxed countries in 2025 are primarily located in Europe, with Nordic nations dominating the list. These countries impose high personal income taxes to fund comprehensive public services, social security, and infrastructure. Here's a breakdown of the top 10 countries according to World Population Review: Rank Country Personal Income Tax (in 2025) Sales Tax (in 2025) (%)Corporate Tax (in 2025) (%) 1. Finland 57.65% 25.50 20 2. Japan 55.95% 10 30.62 3. Denmark 55.9% 25 22 4. Austria 55% 20 23 5. Sweden 52.3% 25 20.60 6. Aruba 52% 4 22 7. Belgium 50% 21 25 8. Israel 50% 17 23 9. Slovenia 50% 22 22 10. Netherlands 49.5% 21 25.80 Copyright © 2022 Nigerian Tribune Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
