One in 10 British workers is working fewer hours than they'd like to. Forced casualisation is a reality for millions. The 'underemployment rate' for 16-24-year-olds is 30%. Retail workers are being offered 12-hour weeks, at a level that puts them below the national insurance payment threshold.

Unemployment has increased by 15,000 to 2.52 million, while total pay growth has fallen to its lowest level in four years. It is the third quarterl...

Work as an incentive to move off benefits should be immeasurable and driven by a desire to unburden society and fend for oneself. In a nutshell to give oneself dignity and pride. In general our society has no regard such notions because people feel they have a right to welfare money, it is their money, to which they are entitled.

Official unemployment figures are disguising the fact that a significant number of people who are in both full time and part time work are not able to...

As you may well know, last week Labour leader, Ed Miliband, announced that if Labour were to form the next government they would encourage businesses to pay employees the Living Wage (approximately £8.55) by cutting business rates or tax levels for those that do. As someone who employees 20-30 people (some on PAYE and others freelance) at the London Jewellery School, I whole-heartedly welcome these plans.

Nick Clegg says his father has not paid back any of his pensioner benefits, even though he does not really need them. The deputy prime minister ack...

Iain Duncan Smith has said he does not want to get bogged down in defending the "nitty gritty" details of how his new benefit system works, amid conce...

Commentators who support the changes will focus on the simplification of the welfare system and improvement in work incentives that this new benefit will herald. Those worried about the impacts will wring their hands about likely difficulties with on-line claims, financial management and a small number of people who stand to receive less than under the current system. Both of these groups have a point.

Ed Miliband has thrown further support behind the living wage, claiming that Labour would offer tax rewards to companies who began paying their worker...

Nothing can be more dangerous to an already anxious generation than to sink into a hole of depression. I am tired of reading disheartening articles about how younger generations are already failed and without a future. How we are doomed to despair, how older generations have given up on us as a hopeless case. All this negativity, it's no wonder we are starting to believe it.

What if the opportunities afforded to a young Margaret Roberts had been different? What would happen to a Margaret Roberts born in 2013? Maybe a woman of Margaret Thatcher's mind would overcome these modern difficulties, but maybe she would not. The ladder of social mobility has been kicked away and how much potential, how many modern Margarets will we waste as a result?