Nicola Smith

I’m a TUC Senior Policy Officer working on a range of labour market and social welfare policy. This includes a specific focus on precarious and low-paid employment, following on from the work of the Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE). I also represent the TUC on the Social Security Advisory Committee. Before joining the TUC I worked in research and policy roles for Barnardo’s, the Children and Young People’s Unit at the old DfES and the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion. I’ve also done a few pieces of freelance work on migration issues.

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Cuts Watch #213: Further cuts to the Working Neighbourhood Fund

Posted on August 31st, 2010 by Nicola Smith

In June, £49.9 million was cut from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund, an area based grant paid to local authorities by the Department for Communities (CLG). The funding is intended to support attempts to tackle concentrations of worklessness in deprived areas. The cut was accompanied by a removal of the ring-fence around the grant – and [...]

Filed under: Cuts Watch, Cuts Watch: Regions | No Comments »

Cuts Watch #212: Free fruit for children in Glasgow?

Posted on August 31st, 2010 by Nicola Smith

Free fruit for children in Glasgow’s primary schools is reportedly at risk of being cut.

Filed under: Cuts Watch, Cuts Watch: Families, Cuts Watch: Health, Cuts Watch: Regions | No Comments »

Cuts Watch #219: £1bn of science research cuts?

Posted on August 26th, 2010 by Nicola Smith

The Guardian are reporting that the UK’s main science bodies are facing cuts of around 25 per cent in funding, placing a number of high profile projects at risk.

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Cuts Watch #218: The Edinburgh Festival

Posted on August 26th, 2010 by Nicola Smith

Arts organisations and festivals in Edinburgh are facing budget cuts of £2.5 million.

Filed under: Cuts Watch | 1 Comment »

Nick Clegg responds to the IFS: another new definition of fairness

Posted on August 26th, 2010 by Nicola Smith

Today’s FT features an opinion piece from Nick Clegg, where he sets out his refutation of the IFS’s analysis. The Government line seems to have changed from yesterday (when the Financial Secretary to the Treasury equated fairness with growth), as the Deputy Prime Minister is now arguing that fairness is about more than a ‘purely [...]

Filed under: Budget, Child poverty | No Comments »

IFS analysis is not selective: Treasury model only included two-thirds of benefit and tax credit changes

Posted on August 25th, 2010 by Nicola Smith

The Deputy Prime Minister has joined his Treasury colleague in maintaining that the IFS analysis of the distributional impact of the Budget is selective and partial. This is simply wrong. The Budget documents clearly state that only ‘two-thirds‘ of the benefit and tax credit changes are modelled in their analysis of the Budget’s impacts. In [...]

Filed under: Budget, Child poverty | 2 Comments »

Mark Hoban’s new definition of fairness

Posted on August 25th, 2010 by Nicola Smith

This morning’s Today interview with Financial Secretary Mark Hoban provided a revealing insight into the Government’s definition of fairness. In response to an IFS analysis (that is based on DWP figures of the impact of Housing Benefit cuts, and HMT’s figures for how social security changes – specifically indexing benefits with CPI – will affect [...]

Filed under: Budget, Child poverty | 5 Comments »

IFS confirm that families and the poorest are hit hardest by Budget cuts

Posted on August 25th, 2010 by Nicola Smith

Today End Child Poverty reports on new research, commissioned from the IFS, that shows definitively what many others have highlighted – the cuts announced in the Budget will hit families and the poorest the hardest. As we showed immediately after the Budget, the Chancellor’s claim that the spending changes he announced were ‘progressive’ has always [...]

Filed under: Budget, Child poverty, Welfare | 3 Comments »