📒 Government published Sir Charlie Mayfield's ‘Keep Britain Working’ report today. An ambitious framework for how employers can support workers in ill-health. Focus must be here to shift the dial on employment of disabled people & benefit spend, not cutting people's benefits. 🧵

1/ 📢 Published today: our new research for @jrf-uk.bsky.social with Glasgow Disability Alliance calls for an end to social care charging in Scotland. Disabled people are being pushed deeper into poverty — it’s time for change. 🔗www.jrf.org.uk/care/time-to-end-social-care-charging-in-scotland

🏦 Economists don't agree on much, but one thing most will say is that the UK tax system needs improvement. In a new joint @centaxuk.bsky.social paper, experts from across the political spectrum look at reforms to make the system fairer.

We're proud to join @crisis-uk.bsky.social in their call for Local Housing Allowance to be unfrozen at the Budget. ❄️ LHA has been frozen since April 2024, heaping financial pressure on low-income renters in the private rented sector.

Spoke to the BBC about the drivers of deprivation and the impact on families. There's a clear link between living in hardship & feeling socially/politically disconnected. To make meaningful progress, communities must be involved in decisions affecting their lives. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Deprivation isn’t only a rural or coastal issue. Some larger cities - Manchester, Birmingham & London - see high levels of deprivation too - driven by high housing costs and high levels of insecure work and low pay. Wherever you live should not affect your chances in life -but this is not the case.

Weak labour markets and low wages drive high deprivation in these areas. While housing costs tend to be lower, the quality of housing can be much poorer. 🏠For example, 1 in 4 (25%) homes in Blackpool and 1 in 5 (21%) homes in Hastings are of poor quality.

🚨New deprivation data reveals continual deep regional divides across many areas in England. High levels of deprivation are concentrated in many ex-industrial northern and midlands towns and coastal areas, where manufacturing and tourism industries have been lost.

Great to be at powerful @turn2us.org.uk report launch in Parliament today, alongside @jrf-uk.bsky.social colleagues! Our social security system should be there for all of us when we need support, and treat people with compassion, dignity and respect #StopTheStigma

🛒 Food, rent, energy and transport make up 46% of basic spending for the lowest income Northern Ireland households. Head of NI Ursula O'Hare sat on @consumercouncilni.bsky.social panel last week to discuss the latest findings from their Household Expenditure Tracker. Full report: bit.ly/4qvAmUu

Scotland Demands Better was the breath of solidarity and joy that was needed this weekend! Great to be there with my @jrf-uk.bsky.social colleagues, the End Poverty Scotland Group and our family and friends. Let's keep up the momentum!

📅 Happening tomorrow! Colleagues @cdbirt.bsky.social @carlaonion.bsky.social @anniemckenzie.bsky.social will join thousands to march across Edinburgh as part of the #ScotlandDemandsBetter rally. A life free from poverty is possible - and change happens when people stand together and demand it. 👇

It is time for trust to be rebuilt in our political institutions. With nearly 1 in 4 children experiencing poverty in Scotland, there is no better place to start than building a better future for every child 🚸 Read our Poverty in Scotland report: https://www.jrf.org.uk/poverty-in-scotland-2025.

"You would be forgiven for thinking this amount must be based on what a person needs to get by in the UK today. That would be logical for our social security system. But you would be wrong." 🗣️ Hear from our Principal Policy Adviser @katieschmuecker.bsky.social for @bigissue.com

📊 Latest inflation figures published this morning show that CPI inflation sat at 3.8% for September. Why does this month's figure matter more? The government will use it to inform how much to uprate benefits by from April 2026. 🔽

Next, our editor @nmozz.bsky.social explored the impact of race on child poverty. "The more explicit we are in defining the problem, the better our chance at devising efficient solutions that are genuinely effective in the communities that need them the most." national.thelead.uk/p/child-pove...

To start with, we have an op-ed from Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Principal Policy Adviser, @katieschmuecker.bsky.social, who called on the government to set more ambitious targets for tackling child poverty national.thelead.uk/p/child-pove...

Children in Scotland are 4x as likely to be in poverty if they are in two or more of the priority families that Scottish gov identified to highlight children at greater risk of poverty. Politicians must recognise the intersections between these groups 📢 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VqCa3k5gtLQ

In today's newsletter, we share The Lead's stance on child poverty, and a call from Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Principal Policy Adviser, @katieschmuecker.bsky.social, who says the government's ambitions to tackle child poverty must be set higher. @jrf-uk.bsky.social

Today, The Lead is launching its latest campaign to end child poverty now. The government insists we cannot afford to lift children out of poverty, while those same children pay the price for political caution. This is no longer workable. national.thelead.uk/p/child-pove...

The Scottish gov identified 6 priority families to highlight children at greater risk of poverty 9 in 10 children in poverty live in 1 or more of these priority families Devastating stats tell us how important it is to invest in a better future for all 🚸 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NLTsFhPGgFU

We are still at near zero real earnings growth since Sept 2024, 11th month in row. We had a very small rise in earnings in August 2025 on previous month, leaving earnings up just 0.2% on Sept 2024.

For questions contact Rosie Worsdale, Senior Policy Adviser (Housing), at [email protected] before Wednesday 22 October. @jrf-uk.bsky.social www.jrf.org.uk/funding

Calling housing academics, researchers and economists - we've put out a tender for research on private landlord profits; how substantial are they, how are they distributed, from rent vs. capital etc. Apply at the link below! Budget up to £40k including vat. Please reshare!!

🚨 Deductions and caps in Universal Credit are driving hardship levels up. On average, households had £59 a week deducted from their UC because of the benefit cap in May 2025. Over 4 in 5 families who had their UC reduced by the benefit cap in May 2025 had children. But this can change.🧵

Politicians must focus on what matters to people like tackling poverty 📢 Everyone deserves an affordable home, work that gives enough to get by on, and enough money to pay the bills Politicians can make the right decisions today and build a better future https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PXwaluRFAPs

A million people in Scotland are in poverty. 📝 Our latest report shows the results of today’s failures on tackling poverty, but there is so much we can do to make things better, if our politicians have the courage to act boldly. 1/3

Around 1 in 4 children in Scotland are living in poverty. Poverty remains far too high, and people are feeling overlooked and ignored by politicians. The next Scottish Parliament is an opportunity to build a better future for all children in Scotland. 🔽 1/4

A better welfare system is possible - one that treats people with dignity, compassion, and care 🤝 In our latest online listening with @demos-uk.bsky.social, we continue to see people's experience of the welfare system as inaccessible, inflexible, and inhumane. 1/2

“I’m feeling sick from fear about this transition from Employment Support Allowance to Universal Credit. I’ve lost several hundred pounds” This is one of hundreds of stories from my research into financial hardship and the welfare system with @jrf-uk.bsky.social

✍ NEW BLOG | Putting humanity at the heart of welfare @j-hancock.bsky.social reflects on 13 years of online conversations evidencing the enduring challenges that people face when navigating the #welfare system. This blog draws from our ongoing Online Listening research with @jrf-uk.bsky.social.

How can leaders in our struggling public institutions support the emergence of alternatives? 🤝 Find out about our new initiative with @kinship.works in this blog from @mssophiaparker.bsky.social and @jamestplunkett.bsky.social: medium.com/@jamestplunk...

"More wage growth in first 10 months of Labour than in first 10 years of Conservatives" is true only on a technicality, due to Covid. The reality is wages have been terrible for 15 years and the present government are reproducing the average almost perfectly. That's also what people are feeling.

📢Without action, families with children will see their incomes fall by the end of this Parliament. But our new analysis shows it doesn't have to be this way. Scrapping the two-child limit and adding a protected minimum floor into Universal Credit could reverse this trend. 🧵

We're on track for a decade of decline in families’ disposables incomes by the end of the parliament. But this is not inevitable. The gov can introduce targeted policies like investing in social security, and interventions in key areas like housing and energy. Listen on @lbc.co.uk 🔽

Introducing a protected minimum floor together with ending the two-child limit would lift 500,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament and reduce the depth of poverty for a further 1 million. 6/6 Read more here: www.jrf.org.uk/child-povert...

The benefit cap disproportionately hits families already at high risk of poverty. Of families with children affected: - around 5 in 6 are single-parent families - over half have 3 or more children - over half have a youngest child under 5 years old 3/6

New DWP data today shows 123,000 families – including 103,000 (over 4 in 5) with children – had their Universal Credit reduced by the benefit cap in May 2025. This eats into UC’s already inadequate basic rate, pulling it further below what’s needed to afford life's essentials. 1/6

On 6 Oct, we'll be launching our Poverty in Scotland report ⚙️ Building a Scotland where all children have the chance to flourish is an investment both in our children and our futures Join us for the latest data and our hopes for the next Scottish Parliament: events.zoom.us/ev/Amsdg9QQK...

Britain’s care system is running on unpaid labour — and most of it falls on women. Read the report by @jrf-uk.bsky.social's @abbyabhaya.bsky.social here: www.ippr.org/articles/who...

Ignoring the care challenge is increasingly impossible. We are getting older and anxiety about living costs, squeezed by care demands, continues. Care costs are also the key driver of many local councils cutting other services, weakening public trust in government. The moment is now. (5/

Excited to share a new report I've written for @ippr.org's Decade of National Renewal project. We are all living longer but policy isn't meeting the scale of the current - or future - challenge. Progressives have a generational opportunity to shape the future of a vital public service. (1/

It is party conference season and JRF will be there 🎤 We'll be hosting panels on living standards, affording the essentials, tackling the housing crisis, and more! Find out what we're up to: www.jrf.org.uk/events.

🚨BREAKING NEWS: Shocking health and diet disparities revealed today🚨 🆕Our brand new Health and Diet Inequalities Dashboard makes it clear that the most deprived areas of the country also have the highest rates of disease related to poor diet. 🔍Explore now ➡️ bit.ly/inequalities...

The latest OBR forecasts suggest the average family may end the current parliament financially worse off than they were at the start. That's unlikely to be a survivable record to defend at the ballot box, but there may be a way to turn it around. New piece from me for Political Quarterly.

One week left to apply 📅 We’re hiring for a Research Officer and a Lead Researcher. Are you passionate about conducting qualitative research on poverty and financial hardship? Do you have a strong commitment to ethical and inclusive research? Apply here: www.jrf.org.uk/careers.

Listening must shape policy: what can social media can tell us about poverty? 🤔 Aleks Collingwood explains why policymakers, charities and researchers must listen directly to people with lived experience if they want to drive real change: demos.co.uk/blogs/listen... 1/2

Tax reform quietly helped reshaped the housing market: fewer landlords, more first-time buyers, no clear harm to tenants. Read more in our @jrf-uk.bsky.social report www.jrf.org.uk/housing/reba...

The gov must make our tax system fairer to boost homeownership 📢 Reforms introduced in 2016 addressed tax imbalances that benefited landlords over homebuyers, allowing more first-time buyers to buy a home - and without negative impacts on tenants critics warned of. 1/3

After a year of a new govt people on low to middle incomes are still struggling to reach the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) 📢 @crsp-uk.bsky.social, supported by JRF, calculated the costs needed to achieve this standard of living in the UK in 2025 1/4