Blog listing
Stay Updated
Want to hear about our latest news and blogs?
Sign up now to get it straight to your inbox
Why more than one million young people are out of work, education or training
The Milburn Review confirms the UK's NEET crisis is a long-term structural problem – not a result of workers' rights or higher pay.
Employment Rights Bill – a lifeline for four million insecure workers
The need for the government to rapidly implement its employment rights overhaul is laid bare by new TUC analysis that shows that one in eight workers is in insecure work.
Sharp rise in number of children growing up in poverty in working households
The Universal Credit is fundamentally flawed and needs to be reformed. No child should live in poverty in our country. We need an urgent economic reset and a government that will make work pay.
Government should be supporting people into work – not making disabled people’s lives harder
The latest government announcement on reforms to financial support for those with ill health or disability is full of misleading rhetoric. The lives of those with ill health or disability are completely misrepresented, and the language the government uses is divisive.
BME women far more likely to be on zero-hours contracts
Our new analysis shows Black and minority ethnic (BME) women are nearly three times as likely to be on zero-hours contracts than white men.
This government does not care about child poverty
The cost of living emergency is causing severe hardship for low-income families across the UK.
Universal credit cut will hit millions of working families and key workers
The Government has now confirmed that £20 a week will be cut from Universal Credit in October.
Kickstart, the job creation scheme for young people, has to be a success
Young workers suffer most in recessions - youth unemployment has long-term ‘scarring’ impacts and spells of unemployment as a young worker can lead to lower pay and more unemployment decades later. The TUC called for and outlined a Jobs Guarantee programme for young people as soon as the impact of the pandemic hit.
The five-week wait for first payment of universal credit is unnecessary and unacceptable
As more people are forced onto universal credit in the pandemic, the government must act now to end the wait.
Our social security net is failing during the Covid-19 crisis
10 years of cuts have hammered our social security system. The pandemic has shown that it needs a major rehaul.
Support not sanctions needed to help people back into work
With unemployment on the rise, we need a stronger social safety net, not more punishment for jobseekers.
Universal credit claims are soaring - but it’s still not enough to live on
The government’s flagship benefits system offers nowhere near enough support to see working people through the hard times to come.
Sick pay for all – why the benefits system isn’t the answer
The benefits system can’t support the millions of workers who don’t earn enough to get statutory sick pay. We need #SickPayForAll to stop the spread of coronavirus
Sick pay from day one is not enough - we need sick pay for all
Changing the rules so statutory sick pay kicks in from day one instead of day four won't help the 2 million people who don't earn enough to qualify
Conservatives' pledge will leave low-income families over £500 a year worse off
TUC analysis shows the Conservatives have cushioned the blow of austerity for higher earners while those on low and middle incomes have been hit hard.
Child poverty in working households has rocketed by 800,000 since 2010
The number of children from working households growing up in poverty has risen by 38% over the last decade. Politicians must act to reverse this shameful trend.
Millions of low-paid workers don’t qualify for sick pay – and women are worst affected
It’s time to scrap the earnings threshold that is leaving 1.4 million women ineligible for statutory sick pay.
Almost half the self-employed are on poverty pay
Almost half of self-employed adults aged over 25 are earning less than the minimum wage, according to new analysis by the TUC, that punctures the myth of a growing army of wealthy entrepreneurs.
Universal Credit should support workers, not punish them for not earning enough
Punishing Universal Credit claimants who don't meet 'in-work conditionality’ requirements risks pushing more people into poverty.
Britain's broken politics: Tax cuts for the rich, frozen benefits for working families
Benefit uprating should be based on need, not the whim of a government addicted to inflicting austerity on the poorest
Zero-hours contracts are still rife – it's time to give all workers the rights they deserve
Everyone deserves some certainty about the hours they will work each week, so it’s unacceptable that 850,000 workers remain on zero-hours contracts.
780,000 workers are stuck on zero-hours contracts - time to ban them outright
Hundreds of thousands are still trapped in jobs that are so insecure they can't plan childcare or budget for their weekly shop
Austerity won’t be over until…the Chancellor stops cutting support for working families
If the Chancellor really wants to end austerity, he must reverse eight long years of cuts to the social security net
Universal Credit is driving workers into poverty - stop and scrap it now
The government's flagship benefits policy is pushing low-paid workers into debt. It must be scrapped before any more damage is done.
The millions trapped in insecure work deserve a new deal
1 in 9 British workers are now stuck in precarious employment. Working people urgently need fair pay, decent rights and a voice at work
New TUC analysis reveals child poverty set to soar by 1 million in eight years
Government cuts mean that children from working households now account for two-thirds of those living in poverty in the UK.
UK firms used 1.8 million zero-hour contracts in 2017 - it's time to ban zero-hour contracts
New data confirm the scale of the zero-hour contracts problem. We believe that everyone should have the right to a contract that guarantees the hours they work. The Government should ban zero-hour contracts.
The government’s benefit uprating policy is hitting the poorest families hard
Tampering with uprating mechanisms to reduce the value of benefits was a political decision taken in 2010 to slash the welfare budget.
Nearly a million people are on zero hours contracts. It’s time for government to act
Today’s figures show there are still over 900,000 people on zero hours contracts.
Is self-employment compatible with Universal Credit?
The complexity and hardship with which Universal Credit (UC) threatens to engulf self-employed workers is one of the underreported stories of the design of UC.