25 h. ago Musk’s DOGE team gets access to sensitive child support database despite objections from officials

DOGE’s efforts to probe separate IRS data are currently on hold

Politics

29 h. ago Andrew Cuomo enters race for New York mayor as frontrunner – but trailing baggage

The ex-state governor, who quit amid sexual harassment allegations, sees an opportunity as Eric Adams strugglesAbraham Rios, a 76-year-old army veteran and retiree, regularly meets friends at a coffee shop around the corner from his home in Brooklyn, and that is about all he does, he says.The Puerto Rican native who served in the Vietnam war is satisfied with the money he gets from social security and enjoys life, but he would like to see more police in his Clinton Hill neighborhood, where he has lived since 1964. Continue reading...

Politics

33 h. ago Unions ask court to stop DOGE from accessing Social Security data of millions of Americans

A group of labor unions are asking a federal court for an emergency order to stop Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the sensitive Social Security data of millions of Americans

Events

54 h. ago The PIP claimants that have a higher chance of receiving £737 award

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released new PIP data, showing that over 1.5 million claimants have been awarded benefits for five years or more

Economics

3 d. ago Staffers at a small overseas investment agency deny DOGE building access, suit says

The president of a small federal agency that supports investment in African countries sued on Thursday to block the Trump administration from shutting it down

Politics

3 d. ago Musk calls social security a ‘Ponzi scheme’. The real con is what Trump’s peddling

Social security is a highly efficient safety net. But the president’s crypto plans and job cuts leave Americans holding the bagElon Musk said on Joe Rogan’s show last week that social security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time”.Rubbish. In a Ponzi scheme, a con artist lures investors into a fake investment project, pockets the cash, and then gets new “investors” to funnel cash to the older ones – until new recruits slow down and the whole thing collapses. Suckers are left holding worthless bags. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago New devolved benefit payment rates for pensioners, disabled people and families from next month

Social Security Scotland will deliver 18 benefits and one-off payments by the end of 2025.

Economics

4 d. ago Is Rachel Reeves about to fix Britain’s public finances on the backs of the poorest members of society?

Editorial: As the chancellor prepares to present her plans for social security reforms she must assess whether her cost-cutting measures are unnecessarily punitive, or indeed realistic

Politics

4 d. ago DWP issued warning over new powers to snoop on benefit claimant bank accounts

The Fraud, Error and Debt Bill is set to give the benefits department new and extensive powers to help it crackdown on fraud within the social security system

Events

4 d. ago Keir Starmer, you claim huge and damaging cuts are vital so we can buy arms and defend ourselves. Prove it | Owen Jones

Splurging the cash is not the answer to Europe’s security jitters. Let’s ignore the hyperbole and decide what’s actually neededBritain is now on a “war footing”, we are told. Earlier this year, Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, demanded that European nations start hiking defence spending at the expense of pensions, health and social security. Fail to do so, he warned, and the only recourse would be to “get out your Russian language courses or go to New Zealand”.In this increasingly feverish atmosphere, it becomes ever more difficult to ask for a bit of perspective, but it is necessary. European elites are panic-stricken after Donald Trump hit the accelerator away from US hegemony, a trend already long under way. Meanwhile, Labour figures openly brief that this could be Keir Starmer’s “Falklands moment”, using Ukraine’s agony to transform the government’s calamitous polling, speaking to a grubby political opportunism. Britain’s current trajectory could raise a much graver menace ...

Politics

5 d. ago Pictured: YouTube bully who hounded Luisa Zissman by flying a drone over her Hertfordshire mansion

Harry Holton is part of a worrying new trend known as 'auditing' which sees creators harass innocent landowners and security guards to create controversial videos to be posted on social media.

Events

6 d. ago New DWP weekly payment rates for people on State Pension or benefits due next month

Full lit of new rates for people on payments delivered by DWP, HMRC and Social Security Scotland.

Economics

8 d. ago ‘A bigger victory for Putin than any military battle’: Russia gleeful after Trump

Putin stays silent but Russian politicians and media outlets crow with delight after the ambush of Ukraine’s leaderRussian officials and Moscow’s media outlets reacted with predictable glee to the dramatic clash between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump at the White House on Friday.Posting on social media, Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s deputy on the security council and former president, called the exchange “a brutal dressing-down in the Oval Office”. Continue reading...

Events

9 d. ago Trump’s promised laundry list of tax goodies gets a reality check

ANALYSIS: Trump promised no taxes on tips, Social Security or overtime. Eric Garcia writes that the math does not add up

Events

9 d. ago Labor unions cheer court ruling that blocked Trump’s mass firings – US politics live

Lawyers for the unions hail ruling as ‘important initial victory’The Russian foreign ministry praised the latest round of talks with the United States in a statement on Friday, calling them “substantive and businesslike.”Russian and US teams held six hours of talks in Turkey on Thursday to try to restore the normal functioning of their embassies, and President Vladimir Putin said initial contacts with Donald Trump’s administration had inspired hope. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Nebraska toddler named ‘Unakite Thirteen Hotel’ finally gets social security number after father’s pleas

Jason Kilburn now hopes to get his daughter, whose real name is Caroline, a proper birth certificate

Events

1 week ago Social Security Administration could lay off up to 50% of its workforce, source says – live

Social Security Administration expected to lay off at least 7,000 people, but a source tells Associated Press reduction could be as high as 50%As Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk work zealously to slash tens of billions in federal spending by axing thousands of jobs and gutting some government agencies, Musk faces mounting claims he has conflicts of interest and no oversight, legal and ethics experts say.Trump’s largest campaign donor and the world’s wealthiest man, Musk was tapped by the president to lead the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) in a radical and opaque cost-cutting drive that allows him to keep control of SpaceX, Tesla and other huge companies with billions of dollars in federal contracts.We expect that today’s meeting will be the first in a series of such expert consultations that will bring us closer to overcoming the disagreements that have arisen with the American side, strengthening confidence-building measures. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Social Security Administration could cut up to 50% of its workforce

The Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000 — and the final reduction in force number could be as high as 50%, according to two people familiar with the agency’s plans who are not authorized to speak publicly

Events

1 week ago Supreme Court rules against drivers in a case advocates say could make civil

The Supreme Court has found that people who score early court wins in civil rights cases won’t necessarily be able to recover their legal fees

Events

1 week ago Is America tired of Musk and DOGE? Poll shows dwindling support for cost

Musk’s upheaval, coupled with granting DOGE staffers unprecedented access to Americans’ sensitive data, appears to have gone too far

Politics