Economy and work

A government-commissioned survey found that most of the 417 young people questioned wanted work, education or training. Their answers show why a lecture about motivation is not a substitute for rebuilding the route in.

More than 27,000 workers have received around £4 million in wages they should have had. TWIS looks at a minimum-wage safety net doing its job — and how its lessons could prevent the next mistake.

Buying can offer small, real changes in how we feel. The harder question is why care, novelty, anticipation, control and relief are so often easiest to obtain through a transaction.

British ministers use foreign precedents to justify tougher rules while giving far less attention to the rights, institutions and practical protections surrounding them.

Western capitalism built and profited from cheap Chinese production. Now that ordinary people can reach that cheapness more directly, governments are moving to make the route cost more.

What does “two-tier Britain” mean beyond policing? This article examines how money lets some people escape failing public systems while others wait inside them.

The government says young people need help into work. But help into work is not enough if the work still lets them be cheaper because of age.

The UK has reportedly floated a single market for goods with the EU. The story is not only trade. It is the attempt to recover some benefits of EU alignment while still avoiding the political language of rejoining.

Workers pay VAT when they buy goods and services, while companies can claim some business costs back through the tax system.

How benefits discourse turns health, care, insecure work, transport, and local opportunity into a story about individual attitude.