Help! Craigie’s adult students are homeless!

Craigroyston HS

Craigroyston Community High School’s adult learners are looking for a new home. Course organisers are urgently seeking temporary accomodation for mature students’ classes – and the courses start next week!
Continue reading Help! Craigie’s adult students are homeless!

Universal Credit’s now Scotland-wide

dwp

Today Arbroath, Blairgowrie, Forfar, Montrose and Perth join the rest of Scotland’s jobcentres in offering Universal Credit to single jobseekers. Nearly 25,000 Scots are claiming Universal Credit and over 9,000 have moved into work under the new system, according to the Department of Work & Pensions.

The DWP says Universal Credit is designed to ensure people will be better off in work and the latest statistics show that people claiming it are finding work faster and earning more.

Those on Universal Credit are significantly more likely to find employment than those on Jobseeker’s Allowance and, for the first time ever, support is being offered to claimants to progress in their careers and increase their earnings.

Today, single jobseekers will be able to claim Universal Credit in:

  • Arbroath
  • Blairgowrie
  • Forfar
  • Montrose
  • Perth

The DWP has produced a short video about Universal Credit (below)

Universal Credit will eventually replace 6 existing benefits:

  • Jobseeker’s Allowance
  • Income Support
  • Employment and Support Allowance
  • Working Tax Credit
  • Child Tax Credits
  • Housing Benefit

See the list of jobcentre areas where you can claim Universal Credit.

What’s your experience of Universal Credit? Let us know!

Do Scots feel at home in a country dominated by one party?

SNP conference

A new report by Electoral Reform Society Scotland says that both Labour and the SNP have benefited from a “predominant-party problem” in Scotland, and calls for a range of radical political reforms to ‘transform our political culture‘. Continue reading Do Scots feel at home in a country dominated by one party?