‘Heartless, cold, calculating’: Here’s the story of how one woman - a single parent and main carer for her severely disabled daughter - was fined more than £11,000 for mistakenly earning about £3 a week over the strict DWP allowance:

theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

Listen to how the DWP hounded one carer through the courts with the net result that he lost his home and his mental health and now costs the treasury a lot more each month - produced by @george_mcdonagh theguardian.com/news/audio/202…

The craziest thing about how the DWP pursued George is that he now costs the state £1,000 a month *more* than when he was claiming carers' allowance. After being prosecuted, he lost his home and became too mentally ill to work, so now lives in social housing on Universal Credit.

A carer who says he was “dragged through the courts” and had to sell his home to pay back almost £20,000 in benefit overpayments is fighting to clear his name after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) acknowledged he made an 'innocent mistake'. theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

Carer prosecuted for fraud and forced to pay back £20,000 in carer's allowance overpayments fights to clear his name after DWP acknowledges - six years on - he likely had made an 'innocent mistake'. Utterly enraging story, brilliantly told by Helen Pidd theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

“His Story Should Be Here”

Today’s front page of The Wall Street Journal.

One year stolen. We will not rest until Evan Gershkovich is free.

#IStandWithEvan

I urge you to listen to this powerful, moving podcast about a woman as she prepares to take her own life at Dignitas - beautifully told by Robert Booth and Hannah Moore theguardian.com/news/audio/202…

This was my final episode as a Today in Focus guest, being interviewed by the great Nosheen Iqbal - before she goes off on maternity leave and I keep her seat warm for the rest of 2024. Wish us both luck!

If you want an uplifting listen, may I recommend this episode of Today in Focus about my magical day at an intergenerational care village in Chester, where young and old live together, with inspiring results Belong Villages theguardian.com/news/audio/202…

Damien Hirst formaldehyde animal works dated to 1990s were made in 2017. The artist says the dates relate to the time he conceived them in his brain. Hmm. Great work by Maeve McClenaghan (who is based in the Guardian's Manchester office) theguardian.com/artanddesign/2…

🚨 Rare job alert 🚨 We are looking for a North of England reporter to join our crack northern team while I’m away presenting Today in Focus workforus.theguardian.com/jobs/337/

🗣️ Job news! I’m stepping into the peerless Helen Pidd’s role as the Guardian’s North of England editor for the rest of this year while she hosts our brilliant podcast Today In Focus.

Just keeping the seat warm, but a teeny bit delighted to be doing so - particularly this year!

A proposal for Greater Lancastria theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

Love that it's in Sheffield

A year after the great Eric Allison and I wrote about horrific abuse by prison officer Neville Husband at Medomsley Detention Centre in 2012, a huge police investigation started, & 2,000 people said they'd been abused there. Now there's a new inquiry
theguardian.com/society/2024/f…

My profile of Lee Anderson, a one-man unmoderated comments section theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

Helen Pidd Aneesa Ahmed TransPennine Express The transpennine trains are absolutely abysmal today. This is Leeds to Huddersfield in the middle of today...