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...

Chile just passed the biggest pension overhaul since ditching social insurance for individual accounts in 1981. A major shift in a system once seen as the poster child for privatization. www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/...

This has, understandably, been overshadowed by far bigger developments But this is interesting because, barring pensions, contributory social insurance has only ever been weakened in my years of watching these things. I’m not sure it’s ever been strengthened since the late 60s

What a fantastic piece of work by Marielle Phe Goursat and @knoxvydmanov.bsky.social ! As countries strive to make #socialprotection more #inclusive, strong evidence is essential to support policy options that protect the rights of persons with disabilities. www.ilo.org/publications...

This is also a mistake on much pension policy thinking globally: "pensions are popular as older people vote". A lot of younger people worry about older parents/grandparents, and about their own old age.

New Lancet article on universal #cashtransfers for children: "universal child cash benefits should be at the forefront of the broader economic policy portfolio as an investment in a nation's health, sustainability, and global competitiveness". Shaefer et al www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Wonderful nuggets from the archives of the UK's social security system 👇

Happy Sunday! Sharing our paper on enhancing the gender-responsiveness of social protection policies, with a strong emphasis a life-cycle approach to system-building. www.ilo.org/publications...

New paper available in open access: “How to Design a Program for the Poor that is Not a Poor Program: Explaining the Political Sustainability of the Guaranteed Income Supplement” #poverty #pensions #GIS #Canada #cdnpolitics @cpsa_acsp @OHLJ @MISCCAN digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol61/i...

On a related note, the recent (supposed) increases in economic inactivity due to ill health, and rising claims for health-related benefits, has been used to justify claims that we have a "spiralling" benefits bill. But when we look at welfare spending forecasts *in the round*, this just isn't true

Borrowing this chart from @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social to add a couple of points. Does the benefit system affect how people report *reasons* for economic inactivity in surveys? It's likely because there is evidence from cross national data that social & economic context influences responses. 1/n

Bluntly defining eligibility to disability benefits based on assessed incapacity to work is problematic from a disability inclusion perspective. However, the experience of the UK also suggests it may - perversely - push up the costs of such systems.

Very cool

Dean Karlan of USAID highlights when to do an impact evaluation versus when to simply monitor versus when to do A/B testing.

Got 30 minutes & looking for a podcast? Here is the deal — check out what happened with #cashtransfers over the past 2500 years! Tune in for a converation with the great Tim Phillips about my book #TimelyCash out today: lnkd.in/eHttxJKR Thanks for having me @voxdev.bsky.social, it was lot of fun.

Happy International Day of Persons with Disabilities!

The Global Wages Elephant chart? Check the new ILO Global Wage Report 2024-25: www.ilo.org/publications...

Walter Korpi revolutionized social policy research by highlighting the power dynamics behind welfare states, introducing the “power resources theory,” which links class-based mobilization to welfare outcomes. RIP www.su.se/swedish-inst...

Great development for someone like me who is interested in issues of poverty measurement and social protection (and also a lover of maps)! The likes of Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree were pioneers in the development of surveys that are core to our understanding of poverty and inequality.

🚨 New Blog! 🚨 GDP is everywhere in development. But in Zambia in 2010, the national accounts were prepared by just one (1!) person. How much can we trust developing country GDP? A 🧵 and post on Morten Jerven's 2013 classic, Poor Numbers, on how African GDP is actually made—

Ask people to devise a package of #socialprotection schemes + give them a simple costing tool 🛠️ to play with to help co-create their vision 💭 Simple but powerful! 💪 The learning continues in #Dakar on day 3️⃣ of our #publicfinance course.

Yes! Would have been another great example for our paper on Pushing the Boundaries of Social Protection Administrative Data Analysis and Use! ;) socialprotection.org/discover/pub... --> bsky.app/profile/knox...

If you see something interesting and want your followers to also see it, hitting like will not help. This is not twitter. Retweet is the way to spread stuff.

Really striking findings, and also highlights the potential of administrative data for long-run impact evaluation of social protection schemes. @valentinabarca.bsky.social

Hi team, happy to be with many Social Protection Experts in the forum. Lets share what's knew around the globe including opportunities for the advancement of the field of Social Protection

Here's what I think is the biggest misconception about fiscal space for social protection (or anything else for that matter) in low- and middle-income countries. Look at this chart... government expenditure as a % of GDP is flat, if not falling. So there's no fiscal space, right? 1/4

Excited to be at the WB-UNICEF course on disability inclusive SP this week with govt officials from 13 countries. Will share links to pages and materials shortly. Lots to learn and share.

Really enjoyed this @socialprotection.bsky.social podcast with two of the great minds in the world of social protection information systems ( @valentinabarca.bsky.social and Rodrigo Assumpção). Much agreement, but also some cordial debate! socialprotection.org/learn/podcas...

Korpi and Palme’s “Paradox of Redistribution” is a justly classic piece any social policy scholar should know. Like others, I felt obligated to revisit and engage with it. eclairs.fr/wp-content/u...

Our review in AJPM found that social assistance programs in the US reduce child maltreatment. - 16 out of 27 studies (59%) and 10 out of 12 high quality (83%) studies showed reductions in maltreatment #socialprotection #VAC #violence #maltreatment www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Oh wowzer! What a treasure trove of evidence on inflation and cash transfers. And couldn't be more timely! This is a policy issue we often discuss, but great to have more concrete evidence on approaches to indexation and their consequences.

A wave of new social protection people joining overnight and this morning! Added to this starter pack go.bsky.app/FP9qJZV I am also adding the same people to this list which you can pin as a feed: bsky.app/profile/did:... (or you can just make your own custom one!)

New WIEGO podcast on how workers can leverage legal frameworks and administrative justice to advance social protection

Extremely excited to find this list... and honoured to be on it! 🥹

Fascinating post by @andrewharrop.bsky.social on measurement of child poverty in the UK The issues of equivalance scales having "no up-to-date empirical underpinning" is even more acute in developing countries (see this nice paper on the issue: www.developmentpathways.co.uk/wp-content/u...)

Trying something new: A 🧵 on a topic I find many students struggle with: "why do their 📊 look more professional than my 📊?" It's *lots* of tiny decisions that aren't the defaults in many libraries, so let's break down 1 simple graph by @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social 🔗 www.ft.com/content/73a1...

The ILO has created a dashboard on informal employment and it's extremely cool. www.unglobalaccelerator.org/resource/inf... I'm often struck by how much better data availability/curation is on these kind of issues are compared to, say, a decade ago @cgalian.bsky.social @ourworldindata.org

Sign up for @ugentilini.bsky.social's weekly social protection links for a brilliant way to keep up with a diverse and fast-moving sector - and to ring in the weekend every Friday

Welcome @knowlesmarco.bsky.social of @unfao.bsky.social to Bluesky! Added to this social protection starter pack, and associated list/feed go.bsky.app/FP9qJZV

A late newcomer here! Watch this space (and sign-up) for weekly news on #socialprotection from around the world: www.ugogentilini.net And if curious about news from the past 2,500 years… check out my new book — now available in kindle version (and print out Dec 3): academic.oup.com/book/58850

@valentinabarca.bsky.social has arrived! A key moment in the growth of our social protection community. go.bsky.app/FP9qJZV

Fascinating thread on the (weakness) of unemployment benefits in the UK's social protection system ... AND how this is strongly intertwined with issues of health and disability. 1/2

Ok, I've caved & joined the starter pack bandwagon These are people who will be interesting & useful to follow as the new government sets out its plans around social security, work & poverty Sorry if I've missed off good people - will add to it as more come to mind or join go.bsky.app/8WEVftJ

#G20 Alert #2030 Sprints 📅 During #G20Social, the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty @nopovertyhunger.bsky.social introduced the #2030Sprints. This initiative aims to scale up proven interventions to uplift the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations. +

🌟 Hey, #BlueSky! We’re socialprotection.org, your go-to platform for #SocialProtection ☂️From knowledge sharing to global policy discussions, we’re here to connect practitioners, policymakers, and organisations working for SP! 💬 Follow us and share: What does social protection mean to YOU? #sporg

Welcome @socialprotection.bsky.social ! An important moment in the building of our social protection community here on Bluesky Added to the starter pack and associated list/feed go.bsky.app/FP9qJZV

Welcome to Bluesky, @socialprotection.bsky.social! @knoxvydmanov.bsky.social @cbehrendt.bsky.social @heinersalomon.bsky.social @rachelstrohm.bsky.social

Very interesting webinar next week on the impact of digital technologies on minority and marginalised groups in the context of social protection (with a focus on disability). Register here: bit.ly/4hLyjah @desibility.bsky.social @cbehrendt.bsky.social

Britain is at last remembering that our pension funds are a major part of the financial plumbing of our capitalism - they’re important for delivering for our individual retirements but also for our collective prosperity www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...