New data shows families with disabled children, and single parents with offspring under the age of three facing financial hardship

Keir Starmer is facing new calls to end the controversial two-child limit on benefits if Labour comes to power – as new data shows it is pushing large numbers of families with disabled children, and single parents with offspring under the age of three, into poverty.

The limit restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households and means families cannot claim benefits worth well over £3,000 a year per extra child after the second.

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Sedona, Arizona, lacks affordable housing, but a program for priced-out local workers to sleep safely has drawn opposition

Jodi Jackson moved to Sedona, Arizona, last year for a slower pace of life. The 52-year-old has found the affluent town – known for its red rocks and appeal to the new age crowd – to be welcoming.

Working in a local laundromat, she comes into contact with a wide range of customers, from those cleaning linens for short-term rentals to those living in their cars.

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New penalties for homeless people at a time of rising destitution would be the ugliest politics. The repealers must prevail

The 1824 Vagrancy Act , passed into law under the Tory government of Lord Liverpool during the period of domestic unrest and repression that followed the Napoleonic wars, was not shy about its targets. Under the general heading of “idle and disorderly Persons, and Rogues and Vagabonds”, it took in fortune tellers, “every Common Prostitute” and anyone exposing “Wounds or Deformities to obtain or gather alms”. Such people, including penniless former soldiers and sailors, were to be imprisoned and sentenced to hard labour.

Five years ago, when a charity-led campaign to repeal this antiquated legislation began to gather momentum , the former Metropolitan police chief Lord Hogan-Howe was among those who voiced support. The view that dealing with rough sleeping was the police’s job was “firmly rooted in 1824”, he said. Frontline outreach and homelessness services should take over. In 2022, ministers promised £8.8m in funding for homeless military veterans, who are still disproportionately likely to end up on the streets.

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Researchers find that in low and middle-income countries owning spectacles can help people over 35 can increase their income

Owning a pair of reading glasses might help people increase their earnings by a third, according to new research.

The study, conducted in Bangladesh, is the first to examine the impact of having a decent pair of spectacles, and researchers found monthly median earnings among one group of people increased from $35.30 to $47.10 within eight months, a rise of 33.4%.

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The Guardian spent time at Oasis Academy Hadley, where more than half of pupils are in poverty but ambitions are high

‘Really worrying’: social problems driving rise in home schooling in UK

“It’s the biggest story, mark my words. I think it’s really worrying. There are going to be dead children.” Zoë Thompson is not a drama queen. She studied physics at King’s College London, and thought she would work for Nasa. In fact, she went into teaching and has been principal of a large academy in a tough corner of north-east London for six years. In that time she has seen it all, but the surge in the number of children being taken out of school by parents on the pretext of home education is alarming, she says.

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Four years ago, about 11.7 million UK employees were furloughed, their jobs and wages protected by a government scheme. Those who had just changed job were left out – and that hardship still affects them today

In March 2020, Mark Edwards was excited to start a new job running a venue that hosted weddings and hospitality events. Before that, the 47-year-old had been working as a general manager at an independent group of hotels for the past nine years. He was living with his partner and dog in Norwich. “My life was on track. I felt everything was in my hands, but that flipped on its head,” he says.

Just as he started his new job, Covid-19 swept across the country. As the country went into lockdown – almost exactly four years ago – and the hospitality industry shut down, Edwards’ new employer sent everyone home. Most people in this situation were able to claim furlough, but Edwards was one of 300,000 “ new starters ” – workers who had started a job in February or March 2020, but weren’t on their company’s payroll in time to make the furlough scheme’s cut-off date. He ended up being out of work for a whole year, with a mortgage to pay and only six months of jobseeker’s allowance available. He spent £25,000 trying to support his household and keep up with mortgage payments. “It changed everything,” he says. “My entire life plan changed … I’ve recovered in terms of jobs but not recovered from losing 25k. I’ve not got it back.”

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After years of hard gigging, the comedian of the year finalist and pun champion is finally breaking through, thanks to his intoxicating mix of surreal standup and social justice

In comedian Kev Mud’s home in Cornwall, a caravan overlooking Porthcothan Bay, he has a mountain of DVDs stashed in a corner. There’s Hitchcock, skateboarding films, Rugrats and Fraggle Rock. “It might be a bit weird for some guy living in a caravan on top of the cliffs to have a load of kids’ DVDs,” he says. “But there’s nothing alarming going on. It’s just sometimes you don’t want to watch a Swedish noir about suicides from a bridge. Sometimes, you just want a talking bear.”

Mud started collecting them during lockdown, after he moved here from Leicester. “The DVDs were me catastrophising – there’s always catastrophe going on inside my head,” the 37-year-old continues, pausing to take a sip of his favourite concoction – Horlicks, milk powder and chai. “I’ll go through these periods, ‘What happens if I have to live without the internet?’”

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Group working with Labour and Lib Dem MPs oppose government’s move to introduce harsher measures

Rough sleeping could be fully decriminalised after 200 years under proposals from rebel Conservative MPs to repeal legislation dating from the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars.

A group of Tories working with Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs want to strip out proposed and existing legislation that criminalises homelessness.

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Police in England and Wales to be given powers to fine homeless people deemed to be causing a ‘nuisance’

Ministers are facing a revolt from their own MPs over plans to criminalise homelessness in upcoming legislation.

Under proposals that form part of the UK government’s flagship crime bill, police in England and Wales are to be given powers to fine or move on rough sleepers deemed to be causing a “nuisance”.

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