“So, what’s really important now is not withstanding challenges that we all focus on getting back to that ceasefire, implementing the understanding and playing our part in getting the Strait of Hormuz open, which does involve pulling together the coalition that the French and the UK are leading on in relation to reassurance, it’s very important.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a major review of Carer’s Allowance that could lead to significant changes to how the benefit works for hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers

The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) has launched a comprehensive review of Carer’s Allowance that could result in substantial changes to how the benefit operates for hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers.

The six-week call for evidence, which commenced on July 7, is inviting input from carers, charities and organisations on how to modernise Carer’s Allowance for the first time since the DWP introduced it in 1976.

Amongst the proposals under consideration are substituting the existing earnings ‘cliff edge’ with a taper system, enhancing support for carers whose income fluctuates week to week and examining rules that restrict how much paid employment carers can undertake while retaining their benefit.

Currently, individuals claiming Carer’s Allowance can earn up to £204 weekly after certain deductions while continuing to receive the benefit. Should they earn beyond that threshold, they risk losing their entitlement.

The UK Government raised the weekly earnings limit to a record £204 earlier this year, enabling carers to earn approximately £10,000 annually while continuing to claim Carer’s Allowance, reports the Daily Record.

Nevertheless, the DWP states the existing system no longer mirrors contemporary working patterns and can create difficulties for carers with variable earnings, leaving some facing unexpected overpayments and debts.

The review follows the independent Sayce Review, which determined the current earnings rules were outdated and that unclear guidance on fluctuating income had contributed to carers inadvertently accumulating debts.

Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms said: “Unpaid carers are the backbone of our communities – quietly providing support that makes an enormous difference to the lives of those they love.

“They deserve a system and level of support that properly reflects the contribution they make, and we are determined to deliver that. This call for evidence is our commitment to going further – and to making sure carers’ voices shape every step of what comes next.”

The DWP is also examining whether amendments should be made to regulations surrounding working hours to better accommodate contemporary caring duties.

Earlier this year, the Department initiated a reassessment of approximately 200,000 Carer’s Allowance cases. Roughly 25,000 carers are anticipated to have debts reduced, written off or reimbursed as a result of the exercise.

From next week, new regulations will also guarantee that any reimbursements made to carers will not impact eligibility for Universal Credit, Pension Credit or Housing Benefit.

Emily Holzhausen CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Carers UK, welcomed the review. She said: “We need to see further reform to Carer’s Allowance because the current system is outdated and no longer reflects the realities of caring today.

“This includes inflexible rules around the earnings limit which are hard to navigate for carers with fluctuating earnings and can dissuade some from claiming what they are entitled to altogether.”

Kirsty McHugh, chief executive of Carers Trust, described the Government’s commitment to reviewing the benefit as “incredibly encouraging”.

She said the organisation hoped the review would represent “a real step change in the way carers are supported”. The call for evidence closes on August 18, 2026, with responses helping to inform future reforms to Carer’s Allowance.

The consultation can be accessed on GOV. UK.

“Maybe I was a little bit nervous,” said Cobolli after the match. “Maybe I felt the pressure that normally I don’t feel. [I was playing] a quarter-final against a guy that already played a marathon match, [spent] many hours on court, ranking lower than me, so I felt like it was a chance to have a good day for me today.

“Maybe, like my team says, I wasn’t so humble since the first point, but I felt that it wasn’t my day. Can happen. Maybe he play better than the other matches. I don’t know. I didn’t see the other one. But I felt that his level is really high today.”

Where do we fit this on the improbability scale? When you consider where he started, Fery’s run feels like the most extraordinary breakthrough story to be seen at Wimbledon this century – and perhaps even since Boris Becker won the title at 17 in 1985.

After last year’s Wimbledon threw up the expected final between Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the 2026 event has been thrown into chaos by the Fery factor. He is the first male wild card to reach the semi-finals here since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001, and will now climb a remarkable 78 places on the rankings ladder, reaching the giddy heights of No 36 and replacing Cameron Norrie as the British No 1.

A man who has suffered with nosebleeds during this tournament, Fery is now operating in thin and rarefied air. But when asked about playing a semi-final on Friday, he sounded almost blasé. “[I’ll just do] what I’ve tried to do for the past 10 days. Yeah, just believe in myself, do the best I can do every match, give myself 100 per cent, and see then where that will take me.”

As the rest of us grow more and more light-headed, Fery’s sang-froid remains firmly intact.

People have expressed their disbelief that Robin, 81, will no longer be at his stall in the covered market and so many have said: “I was only talking to him a week or two ago…”

It is becoming clear that Robin had a personal relationship with practically half the town. He knew us all. He was interested in us all. He always had time for a chat with us all.

With ruddy cheeks, a winning smile and twinkling eyes, he was a real gentleman.

He also spoke up with great passion for the covered market, which had been his family’s lifeblood for 150 years. He received the British Empire Medal and the Citizen of the Year Award for his championing of it, and it is worrying to imagine what the market would look like today without his stalwart defence of it – and it is painful to think what might become of it now he has gone.

Robin also represented an age that is now passing – sadly, in most people’s eyes. These days we shop online and get delivery by drone, or we pass through the self-service checkout at the supermarket, only having a conversation with another human if something goes wrong or the algorithm calls us in for inspection.

Robin was the antithesis of those modern ways. He was the personal touch, a friend to so many people who called at his stall both to buy fruit and to have a natter.

He was always there, an unchanging warm face in a rapidly changing and increasingly faceless and cold world.

His passing leaves a huge hole in the heart of High Row and in the soul of Darlington. We shall all – all of us – miss him greatly.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock has released a very special video that announces her latest pregnancy.

The ex-Little Mix vocalist, 34, is in the middle of promoting her album My Ego Told Me To and released an Instagram Reel.

Leigh-Anne used the last song of her debut solo album My Ego Told Me To, ‘Heaven’ on the video.

Appearing to announce the baby in the recording studio and teasing fans with new songs she captioned the post: ‘As one chapter ends, another begins.’

She has been married to footballer Andre Greys since 2023, and the couple, both 34, are already proud parents to twin daughters born in 2021.

Former Little Mix co-member Jade Thirwall commented on the post: ‘🥹 love you and your beautiful family ♥️🥰🫶🏽’

This is a breaking news story… More to follow…

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“This has to be the most dangerous and provocative motion to come before the council in many, many years.”

A unionist move to suspend a Newry “refugee scheme” has been thwarted by a majority vote amid a sinister threat campaign.

A bomb, video and voice messages targeted elected members who voted for the City of Sanctuary status last year with councillors warning the unionists’ stance is “dog whistling to the far-right”.

A PSNI investigation was launched into the self proclaimed ‘New Republican Movement’ linked to the threat actions with an arrest made under the Terrorism Act.

However, unionist councillors have now urged the council to listen to “genuine fears” in the community on concerns Newry could become an “escape hatch” for EU illegal immigrants.

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Bringing forward the motion, Mournes DUP councillor Henry Reilly said: “Given the uncertainty regarding the effect that the Republic of Ireland joining the EU migration and asylum pact (12 June) will have on border areas in Northern Ireland, that this council suspends any move towards membership of the City and District of Sanctuary for asylum seekers and refugees scheme.”

He added: “Our DUP group is very concerned that many illegals now resident in the Republic will be displaced to Northern Ireland and especially to Newry as we recently voted to make the district a City of Sanctuary.

“We could become inundated with foreign nationals who would become eligible for deportation from the Republic, which is something we simply could not cope with as we are already at breaking point.

“We cannot allow Newry, Mourne and Down to develop as an escape hatch for those no longer eligible to remain in the Republic.

“We do not lack compassion for people genuinely fleeing oppression and danger, but we believe we must put our own people first.”

The City of Sanctuary status involves generating a network including schools, health and local authorities to offer support for ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland.

This would see the local authority join a network of communities and organisations to become places of safety and inclusion for refugees, asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants.

Slieve Gullion Sinn Fein councillor Declan Murphy said:”You have deliberately and knowingly sought to use this to revisit an issue that was hijacked by the far-right in 2025 to spread hatred and fear in this district.

“This has to be the most dangerous and provocative motion to come before the council in many, many years.

“It is dangerous in the dog whistling sense for as we have seen in last year in Newry and this year in many loyalist areas of Belfast the far-right are on standby to use all opportunities to racially attack international workers and decent people who are willing to protect them.

“The fact that a bomb was placed outside our office last year and we all received death threats really brings it home that the criminal far-right is intent on creating fear in this district in particularly the city of Newry.

“We must not allow the far-right and their fellow travellers to use it (immigration) as a Trojan horse to bring mayhem to our streets.”

In October 2025, a viable explosive device was left at the Sinn Fein Newry office shared by Newry and Armagh MP Dáire Hughes and Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins MLA.

That same month a recorded audio message was sent sent out to a number of elected members of Sinn Fein, Alliance and the SDLP on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council identifying them as “legitimate targets”.

In December, a group of allegedly armed masked men calling itself the New Republican Movement issued a video online saying that political representatives in the area are “legitimate targets”.

Rowallane Alliance councillor Tierna Howie said:”I am deeply disappointed we are debating this motion before us particularly in the wake of riots and violence in Northern Ireland in recent weeks.

“People do have genuine problems and they deserve genuine real solutions.

“But, none of them are created by asylum seekers or immigration.

“Yet, this motion asks us to accept the false premise that migration is somehow to blame for the challenges facing our communities, it is a lie and a convenient scapegoat for the DUP.”

Slieve Gullion SDLP councillor Pete Byrne added:”The DUP is not interested in facts or correct information, it is all about fanning the flames with misleading information and outright lies.

“How many times do we have to say that the City of Sanctuary does not control or have any bearing on immigration on one single person coming in here.

“After six months of the most toxic debate, with lies and misleading information being put about in the public, where people’s properties and officers were targeted, when councillors said that messages said they were gong to be ‘dragged out and hung on the street’, with death threats, with police involved and making arrests because of misinformation, I thought that we’d put this to bed and actually talk about the facts.

“Stop using this to gain votes, stop using this to try and divide people and try to work together in this chamber to put out out correct information.”

“Slieve Gullion UUP councillor David Taylor said: “There are genuine concerns about immigration and there is no point pretending otherwise.

“I know this motion does focus on the City of Sanctuary that was agreed by a majority of councillors and the fact remains there are genuine concerns within the community of what this entails.

“I don’t think that there has been a proper debate on this as it always ends up with accusations being fired across saying you are this or that, which is unfair as there are genuine concerns.

“So, I am happy to support Councillor Reilly’s motion at this point.”

The motion was defeated by 27 votes to 7.

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