Dogs at Home; Benefit Cap; TikTok Bookclub

Available for over a year

New figures from the Department of Work and Pensions show that more people are having their benefits capped for being out of work or having low earnings. The benefit cap means the maximum you receive in benefits is £23,000 in London or £20,000 outside of London. The cap doesn't apply to you if you're earning more than £617 a month, the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Living Wage. The latest data shows that 200,000 households had their benefits capped in February 2021, a 13% increase on the last quarter. Last November 180,000 people were affected, and in August it was 170,000. The increase may be a result of people having lost work or hours as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. With more time at home, and exercise restricted to local walks, lots of families bought a dog in the last year. Some have found that their dogs are now very anxious about being left alone for long periods of time. As workers begin to return to office life, we look at the options available to dog owners. We look at the world of TikTok book reviews and the impact on book sales. There have been over 11 billion of views of videos using the term #booktok. Some regular posters have hundreds of thousands of users following and watching their book reviews and its led publishers to change the way they promote new titles. Presented by Winifred Robinson Produced by Beatrice Pickup