I wanted a comprehensive UK-wide Benefits Calculator API to feed my OpenClaw agent.
I emailed one of the existing web calculators over the weekend to ask if they'd give me access to one, but I'm inpatient so I made one myself over the weekend.
See MissingBenefit.com
Crazy times.
How likely is ‘likely’? Does ‘likely’ have a higher probability than ‘probable’? I put together a quick quiz so you can see how you interpret probability phrases, then see how you compare with others: probability.kucharski.io
I also think one of the best political educations you can get is my friend who worked in a 2012ish MP's office, responding to letters going "I support what the government is doing to clamp down on benefit fraud, but I don't see why *I* have to be reassessed"
Ever wondered about TheyWorkForYou? Whether you have a burning question or a minor query, we'll be answering the whos, whys, whens, wheres & whats in a Reddit AMA ('ask me anything') session. Kicks off on Mon 8th Dec at 1pm - www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics... Click 'remind me' and it'll do just that!
Interesting and measured thread looking into whether there was any substance behind the "Chatbots are killing hikers" stories earlier this year.
Aerated concrete and EHCPs: https://richardpope.org/2025/11/26/aerated-concrete-and-ehcps/
Plus suspicion of public bodies using AI to process consultation responses.
If AI becomes a byword for laziness, exploitation, and lack of care, how will that affect where it's adopted, attitudes towards those who use it? And will that matter, or will we just be resigned to it?
In AP v SSWP [2025] UKUT 330 (AAC) UT comments on common practice of DWP decision makers in Universal Credit of stating a claimant is not entitled to seek mandatory reconsideration of a decision because it is "policy" (typically that happens when challenge involves interpretation of a rule) (1 of 5)
A decent topic for further research
There is no need for a moral panic about the UK's welfare system.
Far from perfect but recent discourse is nuts
Spending is controlled, not spiralling
Worklessness is near record lows
My column www.ft.com/content/ee67...
A much needed corrective by @chrisgiles.ft.com to the "welfare is out of control" narrative, drawing on research by my colleague @benbgeiger.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/ee67...
ICO orders DWP to
"disclose the list of all AI tools DWP plans to place on the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standards Hub"
I.e. publish details of all the AI they are using unless there is a valid reason to keep it secret
h/t @rightsnet.org.uk
And so it begins... Client telling me that my (and counsel's) advice is wrong and that I need to consider various cited cases that support their view. Which cases don't exist. Client admits used an LLM AI, but comes back to me with further detailed argument, citing other cases which.. don't exist.
Should read "deport!
Actual policy is here
Cc @peterwalker99.bsky.social
www.theyworkforyou.com/pbc/2024-25/...
Are out-of-work benefit claims at a record high? My new post open.substack.com/pub/inequali... , and also my take on More or Less this morning at www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
As a former resident of wonk-land, this made me snort
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
An AI chatbot is a bad substitute for a bad substitute: bsky.app/profile/tom-...
Introducing the first AI prototype of a British MP🇬🇧🤖
When constituent and local business owner, Jeremy Smith, approached me with this idea, I was very excited to work with him. The AI revolution is happening and we must embrace it to see how it can be useful, in all sectors.
You & @aliceolilly.bsky.social might be interested in this piece by @queensparkkaren.bsky.social on the explosion of casework, its causes & possible remedies www.nuffieldfoundation.org/research/our...
going to coin the term "pollslop" for the ramping up of constant, near-pointless polling and surveys and leadership ratings that neither inform nor illuminate
Said it before - procurement teams across government are being treated like unreproachable Gods and it's absolutely ruining multiple policy areas because they'd don't know what they're doing.
I've realised I know very little about the detail of US social security - can anyone recommend a good source of info? Keen to look at the nuts and bolts so something quite detailed, but sonething that doesn't assume any prior knowledge... #socialsecurity #welfare
Extraordinary use of statistics. DWP might as well claim their proposals will massively improve child mortality because they have decided not to proceed with Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents. The ‘previous Conservative plans’ are not in effect, are not law, and the Conservatives are not in power!
The other way to look at the proposal to time limit all working age contributory benefit is that it would not just weaken but *completely abolish* what has for many years been (after retirement pension) the second most important part of the state contributory benefit system.
On welfare reform the challenge for the British media is getting the balance right between covering the actual story and the political story. Unfortunately there are more political correspondents that social affairs correspondents.
Why do all these people have depression we ask as we create systems designed to make their lives as insecure as possible.
The article below reports DWP's policy response to the R (Roberts) v SSWP case from earlier this year.
It looks like DWP now accept they will need to ask claimants' views about deductions before making them
Rightsnet provide further info here: www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-righ...
Great result by @cpaguk.bsky.social in the Upper Tribunal on universal credit transitional protection
More info: www.rightsnet.org.uk/now/post/61249
