Britain's welfare system is "trapping" poor people in poverty, the work and pensions secretary said as he unveiled plans for far-reaching reforms. Iain Duncan Smith wants to ensure benefit claimants are not made worse off by working and make state support conditional on willingness to work. He said the current benefits system was "broken" and unaffordable.
Proposals to give free prescriptions to people in England with long-term conditions have been put on hold due to financial pressures on the NHS. Health minister Simon Burns said a decision on prescription charges and exemptions cannot be made before the spending review due in the autumn.
A man from Birmingham left permanently in a wheelchair and in pain after spinal surgery has accepted a six-figure out-of-court settlement. Gerald Morgan, 60, was thrown from his chair by a spasm after an operation at the Royal London Hospital in 2004. He had broken his pelvis and hip - but this was not diagnosed until six months after when they were untreatable.
Court rules 55-year-old woman with learning difficulties can be coercively sedated in order to have life-saving cancer surgery. A high court judge today gave doctors permission to forcibly sedate a woman who has a phobia of hospitals at her home, so that she can be taken for cancer surgery against her will.
A BBC Scotland investigation finds that tens of thousands of claimants who are genuinely sick or disabled may have been refused the new Employment Support Allowance. BBC Scotland investigations correspondent Mark Daly has been examining how the system works in practice.
Victims commissioner Bertha McDougall will raise the issue of police disability pensions when she meets the Justice Minister David Ford on Monday. Some officers, who were injured during the troubles, are claiming their pensions are being withdrawn unfairly.
