The most important number from the entire spring statement was not from the Chancellor but from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. They estimated that over the next year, 600,000 people will be pulled into poverty [1]. The 14.6 million people already experiencing poverty will of course be pulled …
Poverty and Inequality
Universal Credit: Why do we think more threats and less choice helps the unemployed?
The Government has announced a new jobs “mission”. The headline policy in this mission is to say to people who lose their job that after four weeks they will also lose their choice about what jobs they should apply for. If they insist on having a choice in how they earn a living, they will be …
Excrescences and Performative Cruelty
The former Welfare Reform minster has described two of his own policies as “excrescences” that were made into law because they were popular. The phrase “Performative Cruelty” has been used to describe such policies and most recently in describing the treatment of refugees. Here Paul asks if or when …
The cost of a decent life
As I write Christmas is only 21 sleeps away! I’m not too stressed about Christmas; I have already bought my train ticket home and I have had some good ideas about presents that I am going to buy members of my family. But for millions of families with low incomes, the cost of presents, Christmas food …
What will it take to insulate Britain?
News over the last week has drawn attention to environmental protestors blocking roads in the south-east of England. The strategic blockages have been a huge headache to motorists going about their business, transporting parcels and food, or getting to work or the airport, and have led to at least …
Explainer: Social Care
Following the government's announced social care reforms in September 2021, JPIT's Paul Morrison provides a guide to some of the issues involved. What is social care? Social care covers a wide umbrella of services to people of working age as well as the elderly. It varies from light …
Why fixing social care will take more than funding reforms
From the reporting of last week’s announced reforms to the social care system in England, you might be forgiven for thinking that the key issue was National Insurance contributions, or broken election promises, or even grand political gambles. Fascinating as this is (for political nerds like me at …
Wave of debt and uncertainty set to hit Universal Credit claimants after planned cut
Data released this week by Citizens Advice paints a distressing picture for levels of household debt in the UK if the proposed cut to Universal Credit goes ahead at the end of September. Universal Credit has been uprated by £20 per week during the pandemic, to help families relying on the benefit …
The effect of Covid-19 on women who sell sex or are sexually exploited
In May 2021, the Joint Public Issues Team published research with the charity Beyond the Streets into the effect of Covid-19 on women who are sexually exploited or sell sex. The issue was brought up at a focus group with local churches and communities which JPIT ran around a year ago, when we were …
Reset The Debt in Parliament
This blog is written by Paul Morrison of the Joint Public Issues Team. Well over a thousand supporters of the Reset the Debt campaign wrote to their MPs to ask them to attend the debate on household debt in Parliament on 8 May. Thank you! The debate attracted a range of MPs from …