A £20 million scheme to help rough sleepers off the streets and into secure homes has been announced by the Government ahead of World Homeless Day. The Private Rented Sector Access Fund will be open for bids from English councils from Wednesday as part of a drive to combat homelessness,…

At least 449 people died homeless in the UK in the last year, a nationwide investigation has found. The research, conducted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, is believed to be the first attempt to monitor the death toll among the homeless community. It has prompted the Office of National…

A debt help charity is seeing growing numbers of people falling behind with fuel bills and a resurgence in the proportion of clients with high-cost credit such as payday loans. StepChange Debt Charity said the proportion of clients in arrears with council tax is also "stubbornly high". In the first…

An investigation is under way after a man believed to have lived in a six-foot shed for 40 years was rescued by specialist officers. The 58-year-old was found at a residential site north of Carlisle in Cumbria in a dawn raid on Wednesday by officers from the Gangmasters and Labour…

The Scottish Government has not taken the "decisive steps" needed to tackle child poverty, campaigners have said, with a quarter of youngsters living in families that are struggling to get by. Over the period 2014-15 to 2016-17 an average of 230,000 children in Scotland were living in relative poverty each…

Thousands of people across Scotland are being forced into poverty due to welfare cuts, according to an official report. The Scottish Government’s paper finds that the benefit freeze alone has led to reductions in spending of around £190 million in 2018/2019, rising to around £370 million by 2020/21. It also…

Teaching assistants, auxiliary nurses, police community officers and other public services support staff are putting in millions of hours of unpaid overtime, according to new research. Unison said its study showed the impact of years of job cuts, which had led to "intolerable pressures" across the public sector. A survey…

A third of Scots have been left unable to afford food at some point in the last year, a survey has revealed. Research for Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) found 33% of people had gone without food at least once in the previous 12 months because of a lack of cash.…

More than one in 10 people in the UK live in "persistent poverty", according to a report that takes a fresh look at the way financial hardship is measured. A major study by the Social Metrics Commission (SMC) found that 7.7 million people, 12.1% of the UK population, have spent…

Public services face a fresh round of austerity cuts within two years, according to a think tank. Vital areas that do not have spending protections are in line for real-terms cuts of 2.1% after 2020, the New Economics Foundation (NEF) claimed. Its analysis found prisons, public health and housing are…

People in Scotland’s most deprived neighbourhoods are almost a quarter more likely to die alone at home than others, new research says. The research says those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods are 24% more likely to die alone at home than those in the least deprived areas. Those living…

Every council in Scotland is offering eligible families a grant of at least £100 to help with the cost of school uniforms, officials have confirmed. Council umbrella body Cosla said all 32 local authorities have implemented an increase in school clothing grant payments to the new level while keeping the…