Spending Cuts Check: special report

With the number of over-65s expected to nearly double by 2050 and little plan for how to support them, Channel 4 News looks at what can be done to cope with the perfect storm of an ageing population.

One in five domestic violence centres has cut services in the last year due to funding problems – despite many refuges already having to turn women away because they are full, Channel 4 News learns.

The government announces it has slashed £5.5bn from departmental spending in the last year, including an 85 per cent reduction in the number of consultants it employs.

David Cameron warns that the welfare system is causing deep social divisions and signals a rethink over what benefits are for and who receives them.

A charity that provides free breakfasts to primary schools tells Channel 4 News it has seen a four-fold rise in its waiting list in the last four months, amid fears child poverty is on the rise.

“Dazzling” sales in the week before Christmas, yet forecasts remain gloomy as plunging profits threaten to close more shops. Channel 4 News asks: what is the future of the British high street?

A bumper Boxing Day and up to 12 million shoppers on the streets on Tuesday – but economists are still warning of gloom for the British economy in 2012.

Ten protesters who occupied Fortnum and Mason during an anti-cuts demonstration earlier this year are found guilty of aggravated trespass.

The government plans to sell Admiralty Arch in central London for up to £75m – part of a wider drive to get better value from its vast property estate, as Channel 4 News hears.

A major strike will still go ahead on 30 November, unions warn, despite the government’s attempt to head off industrial action with a revised offer on public sector pensions.

Protesters stay put in London’s financial district for a second day, as the Occupy Wall Street movement ripples across the globe attracting high profile supporters.

Campaigners in Brent, north London, lose their high court bid to save six libraries from closure as Mr Justice Ouseley dismisses their application for judicial review.

Thousands of vulnerable children and families are being left without access to vital services because of the government cuts, according to one of the country’s biggest children’s charities.

The union representing thousands of headteachers and their deputies is to hold its first ballot on whether to strike in November over a dispute over reductions to their pensions.

As unemployment surges upwards, jobseekers tell Channel 4 News why they are struggling to find work and what practical changes they want to see in the jobs market.