Or rather "not in the news"

Nicely put, Pentstemmon. Everyone can contribute something to help those less fortunate than ourselves, even if it's only signing online petitions that aim to persuade the powers that be to act responsibly.

Back to austerity, IDS has lost his appeal to keep things secret. Hopefully we will now be able to find out what a mess he's made of everything and the government will backtrack on some of its measures.
www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2014/06/26/ids-loses-legal-appeal-to-keep-universal-credit-problems-sec
Did someone say I lived in cloud-cuckoo land?

I don't understand the problems that people are having with Universal Credit. As I understand it, the system was very cumbersome and needed streamlining and simplifying.

I can see that it is fraught with difficulties as there are so many complicated issues and payments which are being combined into one main payment.

As I have never managed to claim anything, even when I was unemployed I would need someone with experience of the system to explain to me what is wrong with the new system, please. I have found this but all it does is lay out the basics. It doesn't explain what is causing all the worry.

The problem is that it does not seem possible. IDS is getting into all sorts of problems sorting it out, and he keeps telling everyone he's on time. The only reason he thinks he is doing it on time is because he keeps changing the dates. Millions should be on universal credit by now and it's only a few thousand.
Most of the benefits that are being rolled into it are altered every year by the relevant department. With universal credit the idea is that those claiming it send in information every month. It's sort of difficult to alter every benefit in that time scale.
The main problem is that IDS will not tell people what is going wrong so nobody can help him. That's what the case was about. He's probably hoping that he gets voted out at the next election, so he can blame the next person for the mess.

www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/18/harrys-last-stand-harry-leslie-smith-austerity-bites-mary-ohara-review

Excellent review by Melissa Benn on two books about austerity.

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/24/living-wage-commission-report-minimum-pay

The picture is from the anti-austerity march, but the Guardian says it was a march about the living wage.