Frank's Westminster Blog

The voluntary groups helping to feed Birkenhead’s hungry report that delays in the processing and payment of new benefit claims are a key driver of food bank use. Indeed, the national data show there are some appalling delays in the processing of new benefit claims which expose hundreds of thousands of people to hardship. I found this week from parliamentary answers that, nationally, 154,309 people between March 2015 and February 2016 waited more than 10 days for their Jobseeker’s

Arrowe Park raised the white flag last week. The hospital held up its hands and acknowledged that its A&E department was bursting at the seams. It simply could not cope with any more patients. Such an admission of trouble has been coming. The proportion of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E increased from 6.4% in December 2011 to 9.1% a year later. Upwards of 15% of patients waited more than four hours in December of both 2014 and 2015. Help has not been forthcoming from the