Surgeries
Details of the times and locations of Lesley's surgeries that she holds for constituents in the East End ward can be found here >
In April, the claimant count for JSA for Dundee was 5.8%. For Glasgow it wass 5.6%, Edinburgh 3.2%, Aberdeen 1.9%
Scotland’s Finance Minister John Swinney claims that Scotland's net fiscal deficit of £7.6 billion is equivalent to everty Scot being £824 "better off".
The IMF has realised too late in the day their austerity policies are not working, and that they are , in Mr.Osborne’s case, “playing with fire” if he continues to forge ahead with them in the UK.
The latest unemployment figures for Dundee show that there 7,500 out of work, 700 up on the past year, and the highest numbers out of work in our city since 1996.
This rise is more likely to reflect the weak state of the economy rather than a revival in the spirit of enterprise. This would mean that secure work being replaced by fragmented work,irregular hours and lower pay.
Continuing with austerity policies is no long an option.By 2017-18, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, there will now be 300,000 more jobs lost in the public sector by 2017-18 than have been already predicted.
The lives of working poor families rarely receive their deserved attention as this would be at odds with the political agenda of portraying the extravagant as the norm for those on benefits.
The full financial force of the UK Government’s welfare benefit cuts upon Dundee has been estimated to be £58 million a year. This is the equivalent of a loss of £600 per year for every working age adult in the city.
George Osborne is earning himself the title of The Quarter of A Trillion Pound Man because the UK Government is likely to borrow an extra £245 billion pounds over the lifetime of this Parliament by 2015.
We are likely to hear a lot more about pre-distribution between now and the General Election, from ideas that have come from Labour, traditionally the party of redistribution from the rich to the rest of society.
There are just 300 more men unemployed in Dundee than women , according to estimates from the Annual Population Survey. The gap between the male unemployment rate and the female rate is just over 1 per cent.
Housing is a very emotional issue because we invest so much of ourselves into our homes. To be forced out or face a charge that is not affordable is not much of a choice.
The poverty we are discussing here is relative poverty where the family is so impoverished that its resources are well below those needed to participate fully in everyday life.
