The legislation would provide a prescription drug benefit for the first time to 40 million disabled and elderly Americans.
This laudable attempt to simplify welfare brings together support for the unemployed and the low-paid into a single benefit for the first time.
About 670,000 households will face a 14% cut in housing benefit for the first bedroom deemed surplus to requirements and 25% for two or more bedrooms.
An earlier version said the right for newly unemployed people to claim housing benefit for the first 13 weeks had been removed.
The report says: "In practice, many are likely to be taken by new households, some claiming housing benefit for the first time".
Tenants affected will face a 14% cut in housing benefit for the first "excess" bedroom, and 25% where two or more bedrooms are "under-occupied".
The Beastie Boys, representing the second downtown, organized a benefit for the first downtown with two sold-out shows Sunday and last night at the Hammerstein Ballroom under the rubric New Yorkers Against Violence.
The weekly jobless claims data (a measure of the number of people signing on for unemployment benefit for the first time) fell by 26,000 last week to a four-year low of 350,000.
The pledge produced by Mr. Lazio called on the candidates to renounce the use of soft money, the largely unregulated campaign contributions that have proven to be a major benefit for the first lady.
"Millions of homes and businesses will soon be able to benefit for the first time from broadband speeds at least twice as fast as those available from the other major providers," said Virgin's chief executive, Tom Mockridge.
The chancellor pledged to increase child benefit for the first child to £20 by April 2010, and increase the child tax credit by £150 more than earnings indexation in 2008.
