Calls for DWP to scrap new Universal Credit rules for people with young children starting this Autumn

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Emily Blunt is getting ahead of a potential scandal by telling People magazine she is “appalled” about a September 2012 appearance on the UK’s “Jonathan Ross Show” in which she called a waiter “enormous.” The actor was promoting her role in Rian Johnson’s “Looper” at the time. A clip of Blunt calling the waiter “enormous” must’ve started circulated as she issued a statement to People in which she apologized for her language.

Charli XCX and Sam Smith‘s new collab “In the City” is out now!

More and more is coming out from Britney Spears‘ memoir — and more and more we’re learning what Justin Timberlake had to be “concerned” about.

New behind-the-scenes photos of the 1997 blockbuster smash “Titanic” have been released — and they look like they were taken 84 years ago.Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet — just 21 and 20, respectively, at the time — boarded the fictional S.O.S. Titanic as production kicked off in summer 1996.

Jewish leaders issued a call for 'calm and harmony' as a charity revealed sickening examples of anti-Semitic hatred reported in Greater Manchester amid the continuing conflict and loss of life in the Middle East.

More than 2,000 figures from the UK’s arts and culture world have signed an open letter calling for the immediate cessation of Israel’s blockade and bombing of Gaza.

Iron Maiden have announced tour dates for Australia and New Zealand, as part of their broader ‘Future Past’ world tour.The English heavy metal band first teased the dates in a video shared to social media last week. Today (October 16), the official run of shows have been confirmed for September of next year, with Iron Maiden first performing at Perth’s RAC Arena on September 1, with another show slated for the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on September 4.From there, the band will perform at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena (September 6) and the Brisbane Entertainment Centre (September 10), before finalising the Australian run of dates at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on September 12.

FKA twigs has announced she’s stopped making new music after her demos leaked online.The singer-songwriter took to Instagram yesterday (October 14) to announce that 85 of her demos had leaked online. Last week, FKA twigs previewed snippets of her upcoming album at Paris Fashion Week with an ornate performance (October 6).With the news of the leaks, however, the album will apparently not be released.

Brain teasers and other mind boggling puzzles are an effective way of stretching the mind and pushing one of the body's most important muscles to its limit.

Eight new coin designs, reflecting the King’s passion for conservation and the natural world, have been unveiled by the Royal Mint and are expected to enter circulation by the end of this year.

A new online petition is calling on the UK Government to ‘honour the Triple Lock in full in April 2024’ ahead of the annual State Pension uprating announcement to be made during the Autumn Statement next month.

Millions of older people are due to receive a one-off payment from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to help keep winter heating bills down. No exact dates for this year’s Winter Fuel Payment have been announced, however, DWP has said most payments will be made during November and December.

World Mental Health Day on October 10 aims to encourage more people to talk about mental health and show others how important it is to encourage people to ask for help. More than one million adults across Scotland have experienced levels of anxiety stopping them from living their daily lives, recent research from the Mental Health Foundation suggests.

Attendance Allowance is a benefit delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for people of State Pension age who need help with personal care or supervision due to an illness, disability or mental health condition. A successful claim is worth either £68.10 or £101.75 each week, the level of award depends on the amount of support someone needs.

MPs and peers from all sides have called for an “immediate stop” to the use of live facial recognition surveillance by police and private companies. Former Brexit Secretary David Davis MP, Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey, Green MP Caroline Lucas and former shadow Attorney General Baroness Shami Chakrabarti are among the 65 members of the House of Commons and House of Lords who campaign Big Brother Watch say have backed their call for a halt to the technology’s use.

Blink-182 have paid homage to the legendary New York rock band the Ramones in the video for their latest single ‘Dance With Me’.The track is a fresh take on a classic Blink song packed with a tapping guitar riff, heavy drums and catchy, anthemic lyrics such as: “Olé, Olé. Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé / Yeah / We’re doing it all night long“.Directed by The Malloys, the song’s accompanying video is billed as a love letter to the famous New York punks – one of Blink’s favourite bands – and sees Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker dressed up in Ramones cosplay.

“It’s like The Hunger Games, the AMPTP thinks they can starve us back to work,” said Bectu National Secretary Spencer MacDonald, as around 200 below-the-line workers gathered in London’s Leicester Square this afternoon to urge a swift end to the actors strike.

An online petition calling for the State Pension to be increased to £416 each week for everyone over the age of 60, to match the hourly rate of the National Minimum Wage, has received more than 10,000 signatures of support and is now due an official response from the UK Government.

There is a key date this month that everyone claiming their State Pension should be aware of as it could determine how much the contributory benefit will increase next April. The September Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate will be announced on Wednesday, October 18 and forms part of the Triple Lock policy which is used for the annual State Pension uprating.

This is an opinion letter and does not necessarily represent the views of the Manchester Evening News.