And a few hours on prompt engineering

Did my 10 seconds on More or Less this morning but why do they always leave out the pithy comment you were really proud of?

UK Poverty 2026: The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK This report sets out the nature of poverty in the UK, and evaluates changes under the last Conservative-led Government. It also sets out the scale of action necessary for the current Government to del...

Read our full #UKPoverty2026 report here: www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2...

Y flwyddyn ddiwethaf cafodd 208,000 o bobl yng Nghymru gymorth gennym. Mae hyn yn 8.5% yn fwy na'r flwyddyn flaenorol.

Rydyn ni’n cefnogi mwy o bobl ledled Cymru nag erioed o’r blaen. Dyna pam rydyn ni’n galw ar lywodraeth nesaf Cymru i gynnal mynediad at gyngor annibynnol o ansawdd uchel, fel bod pobl yn cael y cymorth cywir pan fydd ei angen arnynt.

Mwy o wybodaeth ⤵️
public.flourish.studio/story/3553775/

Text reads, 'Last year we helped 208,000 people in Wales. That's 8.5% more than the previous year'.

We're supporting more people across Wales than ever before. That's why we're calling on the next Welsh Government to maintain access to good quality, independent advice to ensure that people have the right support when they need it.

Read more ⤵️
public.flourish.studio/story/3486637/

HT John Ganz: "I have the impression that the persons directing the policy of the Hitler Government are not normal. Many of us, indeed, have a feeling that we are living in a country where fantastic hooligans and eccentrics have got the upper hand.” —Sir Horace Rumbold to London, 1933

Daily Mail joins in the false benefits comparisons. This time they managed to give a 3 child family on benefits over £25k more than is correct when comparing with a single high earner. benefitsinthefuture.com/tis-the-season… #benefits #work #DailyMail

‘tis the season to be jolly… wrong, in the Daily Mail. This time the Mail manages to give a 3 child family on benefits over £25k more than is correct when comparing with a single high earner. benefitsinthefuture.com/tis-the-seas... #benefits #work #dailymail

‘tis the season to be jolly… wrong, in the Daily Mail. This time the Mail manages to give a 3 child family on benefits over £25k more than is correct when comparing with a single high earner. benefitsinthefuture.com/tis-the-seas... #benefits #work #dailymail

‘tis the season to be jolly… misleading, in the Daily Mail. This time the Mail manages to give a 3 child family on benefits over £25k more than is true when comparing with a single high earner. The details benefitsinthefuture.com

I’m told a formal complaint has been made to IPSO about the Telegraph article.

Senior DWP civil servant blames victims for carer’s allowance scandal Neil Couling said failings by individual claimants ‘at the heart’ of crisis, despite a report finding DWP shortcomings ‘unacceptable’

Have only seen what's quoted here but I'm sure NC's right that 'failures' to report changes of circumstance were the main driver of the overpayment issues. A system that imposes major compliance costs on claimants and draconian responses to breaches will do that. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

The lifting of the 2 child limit makes a big difference to those working over 16 hours at NLW levels of earning. That’s particularly true where they are paying for childcare and the, largely unnoticed, lifting of the 2 child childcare limit applies. Politically, it’s a work incentive measure.

Lies, Damned Lies and the Telegraph – Gareth Morgan. I had not got my head around the two children rules until I heard from my friend Gareth Morgan at our webinar and from Alan Chaplin who highlighted this wondrous piece on social media. This piece is by Gareth Morgan on December 1, 2025 The abolition of the two-child benefit limit in the budget attracted a lot of comment. From the Government and its supporters came a stream of articles and postings lauding the action at the number of families and children that it will lift out of poverty.

Lies, Damned Lies and the Telegraph – Gareth Morgan.

I had not got my head around the two children rules until I heard from my friend Gareth Morgan at our webinar and from Alan Chaplin who highlighted this wondrous piece on social media. This piece is by Gareth Morgan on December 1, 2025 The…

Lies, Damned Lies and the Telegraph – Gareth Morgan. I had not got my head around the two children rules until I heard from my friend Gareth Morgan at our webinar and from Alan Chaplin who highlighted this wondrous piece on social media. This piece i…

Lies, Damned Lies and the Telegraph - Gareth Morgan. henrytapper.com/2025/12/03/l... The, much more than misleading, figures given in the ‘research’ and enlarged in the article are a sad indictment of a political assault masquerading as accurate reporting.

Lies, damned lies and the Telegraph. They posted CSJ figures using an outrageously false comparison of 2 cases. It claimed a benefits family were better off by £18k than a working household when the real figure was £16k worse off. The details benefitsinthefuture.com #benefits #budget

I hope somebody will complain to IPSO about this (and the similar Express splash). If so this will be a very useful reference.

Lies, damned lies and the Telegraph. They posted CSJ figures using an outrageously false comparison of 2 cases. It claimed a benefits family were better off by £18k than a working household when the real figure was £16k worse off. The details benefitsinthefuture.com #benefits #budget

A quick bit of maths seems to show that if you put their working family in the same circumstances they'd get £10k a year in PIP, £3.3k in Child Benefit and £4.3k in Universal Credit on top of their earnings. I'll do the proper sums tomorrow.

Ending 2 child cap offers no help to those hit by OBC. No family in Wales with 3 kids escapes but add that to the new per-child childcare support and it's a real jump in support if you're earning over 16 x NLW. The better-off in-work numbers can look huge.

All purpose Budget post.
“I want to get more and pay less”.

If Welsh local authorities matched the best Pension Credit take up performance of a Welsh LA then this is the extra annual benefit that would go into pockets and the local economy. £29.5m a year!
#Wales #benefits #pensioners

So lower take-up means less deprivation (allegedly) and loss of deprivation support. Double argument for take-up work.

PIP is not related to capability for work. A lot of PIP recipients work.

The new local data on Pension Credit eligibility and take up also gives a new picture of huge local variations. Some areas have twice the take-up of others. benefitsinthefuture.com/4092-2/

Is welfare rights work the reason some areas have double the Pension Credit take-up rate of others?
benefitsinthefuture.com/4092-2/ #pensions #benefits #older #takeup

Some areas see almost 90% of eligible Pension Credit paid but others only get 40%. Why and what’s different. benefitsinthefuture.com/4092-2/ #pensions #benefits #older

Some areas see almost 90% of eligible Pension Credit paid but others only get 40%. Why and what’s different. benefitsinthefuture.com/4092-2/ #pensions #benefits

Very variable by locality possibly linked to welfare rights advice work. benefitsinthefuture.com/4092-2/ looks at some details

Big differences in Pension Credit take-up revealed Big differences in Pension Credit take-up revealed by Gareth Morgan on October 31, 2025 The DWP have published some analysis, for the first time, which looks at Pension Credit take-up in a much mor…

"the best performing areas are those which have had a long record of active welfare rights work while those at the bottom have been more poorly resourced" @ferrinfo.bsky.social Gareth Morgan