Hope it's OK to post this here!
Just a quick note to say that the govnt is squeezing in the 2nd Reading of the Welfare Reform Bill on July 19th, the day before the Lords break up for their summer holidays.
As people may know, there hasn't been much opportunity to chip away at the proposals while the Bill was going through the Commons because of the Coalition majority, but the situation is quite different in the Lords.
Among other things, the Bill seeks to introduce Universal Credit which will scrap the current benefit system (active and inactive benefits) + housing benefit etc and replace with a single integrated payment. (There's a raft of other measures but Universal Credit is perhaps the most dramatic)
edyourself.org/articles/jobseekers.php#welfreformbill2ndreadinglords
edyourself.org/articles/jobseekers.php#universalcredit
We're still waiting to hear exactly when the Govnt will implement the new lower age 5 for claiming Income Support as a lone parent (ie whether it's October this year or January next year)