CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: Survey on UK MoD welfare services for veterans - as part of our new study looking at how welfare services could be enhanced through trauma-informed approaches
app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/salford/un...
1. UC will soon be fully rolled out Thirteen years aer its introduction in 2013, UC will be fully rolled out in April. At this point, just under half of all children in the UK (42 per cent) will be living in families recieving UC. But despite its huge role in modern life, UC remains a source of anxiety for many. The Government must improve the system, and rebuild trust with claimants.
2. key problems remain Despite its long period of implementation, problems remain, like the five-week-wait for support, inflexible assessment periods, and the confusing structure of its online portal. But, there are aordable and fair solutions to all of these problems.
But technical or structural improvements need to be complemented by a fundamental ‘culture reset’ that puts dignity and respect at the heart of UC. The Government should work directly with claimants to deliver this possibly via the co-production of a Charter of Rights and retraining of staff.
4. which needn’t break the bank The sixteen policy recommendations outlined in the Foundation’s analysis would cost an estimated £400 million in one-off costs, and between £700-900 million in additional benefit expenditure each year. This marginal increase in the year-on-year benefit spend would be worth it to transform claimants' day-to-day experiences of the system.
April 2026 will mark a true milestone for the UK benefits system: the end of the thirteen-year rollout of Universal Credit that has brought together all means-tested working-age benefits.
But there are still further improvements to be made ⤵️ buff.ly/TjrE4OW
End of working week but this article from @madeleinepower.bsky.socialn is a must-read. A plethora of names to describe 'food aid' conceals the reality they're all experienced as food banks, with the key fault line not *type* of provision but *demographic* factors www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
🚨Major conference🚨
We're publishing a new book – combining analysis and policy work with in-depth conversations to understand the needs of lower income families – and hosting a major conference to discuss, with keynote speeches from Andy Burnham and Ken Murphy.
Register now➡️ buff.ly/2tG8LsY
"We actually have an unemployment problem in the UK now"
@gthwaites.bsky.social breaks down the latest data on the labour market ⤵️
Just spent a day in Whitby. Absolutely full of dogs. Every pub, cafe and tiny street. People carrying dogs up the steps to the Abbey. Just bonkers! Chatted to a lady working in a shop and she complained about the number of dogs (we left our dog at home because it’s just not a place for dogs!)
I can’t envisage a child poverty strategy which garners any credibility without fully scrapping the two-child limit.
Unconvinced? Check out (even better share) this summary of the peer-reviewed evidence base @kittyjstewart.bsky.social @aaronreeves.bsky.social
largerfamilies.study/publications...
Avanti West Coast. Keeping the nation working. Said no one ever
The two child limit and benefit cap are "economically inefficient" because [they] "undermine public health, early years development and educational outcomes.... This in turn increases pressure on local services, including schools, health and housing." www.lbc.co.uk/article/grou...
The difference between LHA rates and local rents varies widely by place as increases in the cost of renting since September 2023 have been far from uniform. Today, the largest cash gaps are in London where private rents tend to be highest, and even a small percentage increase in rents can lead to a significant cash shortfall. Figure 2 shows, in just two years, average local rents for two-bedroom property have outpaced the prevailing LHA rate by an eyewatering £350 a month in the Inner London borough of Hackney. Even in the London borough with the lowest rent inflation over this period - Bromley in Outer London – that shortfall amounts to £172 a month.
The impact of freezing Local Housing Allowance varies widely across the country.
London has some of the largest gaps between LHA and market rents.
But shortfalls of at least £100 a month appear in every region.
🌟New: The Government would like to get more people who are currently on disability #benefits back to work.
But Catherine Hale (@catherinehale.bsky.social) argues that the labour market in its current state is not fit to accommodate disabled people wanting to return to #work.
#GetBritainWorking
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
"Building relationships of trust? The experiences of military veterans claiming ‘interface first’ Universal Credit" by @davidhjyoung.bsky.social @lisa-scullion.bsky.social Philip Martin, Celine Hynes, Joe Pardoe www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Amnesty warns DWP's use of AI and automation in welfare is harming disabled people and digitally excluded claimants.
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill has made its debut in parliament. It promises to deliver a Community Right to Buy
The DWP are advertising for a new intake of academic secondees. This is the role I'm currently doing - happy to talk to anyone about what it's like!
www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...
Loved our perimenopause and parenting chat ❤️ thank you 🙏
@lisa-scullion.bsky.social and colleagues have been working directly with DWP to try and understand how a trauma informed approach might inform their work. Vital and fascinating work < @easp-spa-2025.bsky.social >
Love this!
@haylesben.bsky.social identifies four key roles / ways of potentially understanding the roles local and devolved welfare play & notes they are not mutually exclusive - compensating, complementing, contesting, challenging (or inspiring)
@haylesben.bsky.social is arguing that there is value in trying to develop a new conceptual framework to understand what is happening in the uk around the changing role of local and devolved welfare
Great to have @haylesben.bsky.social kicking off our @easp-spa-2025.bsky.social symposium , a chance to reflect on work we’ve been doing together on our @nuffieldfoundation.org @safety-nets.bsky.social project
🧵inciming
Been lots of debate about what might turn the dial on child poverty. But we hear far less from families in poverty. Our new briefing sets out a blueprint for a successful child poverty strategy, grounded in experiences of hardship
changingrealities.org/writings/get...
Pls read + share this 🧵
Chart showing that in 2018, the UK was among the worst in Europe for child poverty rates, second only the Greece.
The UK is among the worst nations in Europe for child poverty.
In the UK, 11% of 15-year-olds reported they had skipped a meal in 2022 because there wasn't enough money to buy food.
In the Netherlands and Finland, this number was 3%.
On benefit cuts, Keir Starmer is “attempting to defend the indefensible”, writes @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social
www.prospectmagazine...
Work is an effective route out of poverty, but the landscape for parental employment has changed a lot since the mid-2000s.
The proportion of families with children in poverty who are in work has increased over recent decades; over seven in ten families in poverty already have someone in work.
Labour government policies have led to losses of more than £1bn from the HE sector since it came to power in July, new analysis suggests.
It comes as @politicshome.bsky.social understands there is concern in the sector over the direction of HE reforms
www.politicshome.com/news/article...
I've been thinking for a while that we should be talking more about the "social determinants of work". David Kingsley has got there first; great piece naming "the social determinants of employability" - housing insecurity, digital exclusion, mental health, access to care www.myiep.uk/blogs-and-op...
Our new report on the Household Support Fund, part of the @safety-nets.bsky.social project, is out today. It draws on analysis of HSF admin data and interviews with LAs and @changingrealities.bsky.social participants to identify how the HSF can be improved in a long-term settlement /Thread
