My review from 2024: ‘The social engineering of shame’: Rick Morton’s Mean Streak exposes the populism behind the unlawful Robodebt scheme theconversation.com/the-social-e...

The more in favour of welfare you are, the more likely you are to support cycle lanes theconversation.com/the-more-in-...

And if you’d like the whole ebook (or any of the 27 chapters) completely free, it’s always just a one-click download from @LSEPress here press.lse.ac.uk/books/e/10.3...

Happy to say that the paperback book edition of “Australia’s Evolving Democracy” can be purchased for less than £11 from Amazon UK. Great value for 600 pages. www.amazon.co.uk/Australias-E...

The ABS has released an Information Paper on why it did not release results from the 2023-24 Survey of Income and Housing www.abs.gov.au/statistics/d...

Rising health expenditures and population ageing prompted OECD governments to increase social security contributions in 2024, reflecting a broader trend towards increasing revenues to strengthen the long-term sustainability of social protection systems. www.oecd.org/en/publicati...

1 in 8 households don’t have the money to buy enough food (in 2023) theconversation.com/1-in-8-house...

We can’t fix what we don’t track. That’s why Australia needs an official poverty measure theconversation.com/we-cant-fix-...

New jobs here! I'm on the Advisory Board of this Leverhulme Trust-funded project investigating 'The long-term impact of New Labour’s social and economic policies', and there are two Research Fellowship posts available: jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... An overview of yesterday’s announcement

Using my first Bluesky post to share that Marsha Wood & I have a new article out! 🎉 We take a gendered street-level look at how Universal Credit policies shape parents’ everyday realities of navigating work, care & welfare. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Australian Economic Review: Volume 58, Issue S1 Fifty Years Beyond the Henderson Inquiry: Rethinking Poverty Measurement for Australia (free) at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14678462...

And one on housing policy www.aph.gov.au/About_Parlia...

Brand new publication type from the Parliamentary Library - Policy Brief. Here's the first batch: www.aph.gov.au/About_Parlia...

DSS statement here: www.dss.gov.au/news/update-... Ministerial media release: ministers.dss.gov.au/media-releas...

Importantly, the Fed Court rejected the AAT's interpretation of when income is first 'earned'. The AAT's interpretation overturned how DSS/Centrelink had assessed earnings for decades and would have created a lot of issues for calculating pre-December 2020 debts

Federal Court decision in Chaplin v DSS Secretary (test case relating to method used to recalculate unlawful income apportionment debts) - accepts DSS' preferred method for assessing income where there is insufficient info on when the income was earned. www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Ju...

Social Services cleared to pursue historical welfare debts www.themandarin.com.au/295770-dss-c...

Synergy to repay $2.29 million after overcharging Centrelink customers for power www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

A new blog co-authored by Agustín Redonda has just been published by @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social on tax expenditures. These are tax reliefs designed to pursue social or economic objectives - a welfare policy often overlooked in policy debates. Read more 👇 social-policy.org.uk/spa-blog/blo...

Jonathan Bradshaw at the symposium on his legacy in Social Policy in the 21st century #York2025 @easp-spa-2025.bsky.social

#York2025 about to start! ECR and PGR session already on the way and now getting ready for delegates to arrive for a Yorkshire lunch & our first plenary from Sophia Lee @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social

About to get underway with the first plenary of the EASP SPA 2025 conference #York2025

The UK welfare state: recent history & future prospects. New essay by me & @iprnickp.bsky.social for @oxrepjournal.bsky.social on the economic, political & demographic forces reshaping our welfare state. academic.oup.com/oxrep/articl...

Robodebt dampening public servants’ AI enthusiasm www.themandarin.com.au/293399-robod...

📢 Next week: join our next seminar "Wealth & the Welfare State" Prof. @peterwhiteford.bsky.social (The Australian National University) will discuss how welfare states shape wealth distribution ⬇️ Location: In person and online Date: 10 June 🔗Register: talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/952...

Parliamentary Library Issues and Insights article looking at ‘Universal access versus targeting of social services and welfare’. This graphic shows the main social spending programs - each income and assets test symbol represents a different means test www.aph.gov.au/About_Parlia...

Analysis from the University of Auckland: New Zealand is hurtling towards a sharply divided country of extreme wealth and extreme poverty with an insecure middle class

Very interesting paper from @RogerWilkins_au "Have changes in the Australian labour market this century contributed to rising voter disaffection?" melbourneeconomicforum.com.au/wp-content/u... 1/2

The share of Australian households with income from government payments is at a 25 year low. Those with zero or less than 1% of their income from social security has increased from 41 to 58%.

The War on Government Statistics Has Quietly Begun: Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick disbanded the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee. Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti... (paywall)

The Impact of Australian Government Assistance on Housing Stress www.austaxpolicy.com/budget-forum... Since March 2022, maximum CRA rates have risen by 45%, including regular indexation every six months. Additionally, the government raised base rates of JobSeeker and YA by $40 per fortnight. 1/2

Despite recent increases, Australia remains near the bottom of OECD advanced economic nations when it comes to the adequacy of out-of-work payments for the short-term unemployed. johnmenadue.com/despite-rece...

Judy Wajcman: AI will be good for diagnostics, but not for educating kids blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessrevi...

JobSeeker Payments are still below the Poverty Line, and here’s why that affects us all www.austaxpolicy.com/jobseeker-pa...

Despite recent increases, JobSeeker still leaves people below the poverty line. Here’s why that affects us all theconversation.com/despite-rece...

“Inside the DOGE Threat to Social Security,” "Mistakes and overpayments do occur, but the agency’s inspector general recently found that less than one per cent of benefits distributed between 2015 and 2022 were improper." tinyurl.com/vnxsbcc8 May be a paywall ...

Power to the people: a new book reveals the true story of how Australian democracy works theconversation.com/power-to-the...

The daily routine of a single parent can be harsh due to higher child care responsibilities, housing stress, financial inequalities and poorer mental health, finds the latest HILDA Survey pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/lif...

Income inequality in Australia is at a 20 year high according to the latest HILDA report @RogerWilkins_au pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the...

AI Prototypes for UK welfare system dropped www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

My £250 Child Trust Fund is now worth only £12 bbc.com/news/article...

The National Disability Data Asset is now accepting research applications. Researchers can now apply to access the National Disability Data Asset. The National Disability Data Asset brings together de-identified data from across Australia. www.dss.gov.au/news/nationa...

Quality early care and education is a right for every child from the Productivity Commission www.pc.gov.au/media-speech...

How Nordic social democrats embraced Capitalism www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/b...

Yay! @isa-rc28.bsky.social is on bluesky! #rc28 is the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Social Stratification and Mobility. Possibly the most active one, with two conferences each year, often one in Europe and one in the US, but increasingly also in East Asia.

‘The Social Engineering of Shame’: Rick Morton’s Mean Streak Exposes the Populism Behind the Unlawful Robodebt Scheme www.austaxpolicy.com/the-social-e...