In our new report, we set out five recommendations that outline a pathway from improving wellbeing measurement to strengthening the evidence base and enabling more robust long-term analysis.
pbe.co.uk/publications...
Three people with learning disabilities sit and stand in a group around a table. One person is listening to music on their phone with headphones in and dancing, the other two people are smiling at the camera.
We want to level the playing field for people with learning disabilities by establishing more consistent ways to measure the impact of things that affect their lives.
Please help share what must be one of the best jobs ever. We are looking for a writer to join @ourworldindata.org to work with our fantastic team including @maxroser.bsky.social and @hannahritchie.bsky.social. £80k - £120k / ideally full time / location flexible
ourworldindata.org/hiring-write...
Our CEO @mattwhittaker.bsky.social shares his view on what the geopolitical shifts in 2026 mean for charity finances.
pbe.co.uk/insights/on-...
It's a bit of a myth that rents are constantly increasing faster than earnings or overall inflation - on average, they're not.
So what *is* the problem of unaffordability in the private rented sector? And what does this mean for how we go about fixing it?
Our take 🧵⬇️
Just middle age I fear
Pre-2020, so I have zero recollection! Sounds like a Kelly special though
So, any surge in energy and food costs (plus interest rates) would return the cost-of-living crisis to centre stage. For an all-too-large minority however, it never went away. Much will depend on how the conflict plays out of course, but the need to support those already at the edge is clear to see
Line chart showing the number of people helped by Citizens Advice Bureaus with referrals to foodbanks or other charitable support in the period from May 2020 to December 2025. The three-month average climbed (with seasonal variation) through to mid-2024. The number has drifted down since then, but remains significantly higher today (close to 25k) than at the start of the series (under 10k).
This picture of acute challenge for a significant minority is also reflected in demand for charity services. It's down a little from its peak, but the number referred by Citizens Advice each month to foodbanks or other charitable support remained 2.5x higher at end-2025 than in spring-2020
Line chart showing the proportion of direct debit payments that failed to clear in the period from January 2019 to February 2026. Three-month averages are shown for different classifications of payments (fitness facilities, loans, electricity and gas, water, mortgages) and for the overall total. The failure rates have increased steadily across all types. The total failure rate stood at 1.52% in Jan-19 and 2.44% in Feb-26.
And, behind these averages, the proportion of households displaying signs of extreme difficulty has continued to increase over the last few years. One in every 40 direct debit payments failed in Feb-26, up from one in every 66 ahead of the pandemic
Line chart showing the proportion of adults in Great Britain reporting finding it difficult to afford energy bill payments in the period from March 2022 to February 2026. Figures are survey based and confidence intervals are shown as a shaded band. The 60-day average rose through 2022 and 2023, peaking above 40%. It subsequently fell to around 30% in late-2024. It has been relatively stable since then.
And with interest rates still markedly higher than many of us had got used to through the 2010s, the proportion reporting difficulty with accommodation costs also remains somewhat elevated
Line chart showing the proportion of adults in Great Britain reporting finding it difficult to afford energy bill payments in the period from March 2022 to February 2026. Figures are survey based and confidence intervals are shown as a shaded band. The proportion rose through 2022 and 2023, peaking at close to 50%. It subsequently fell to around 30% in mid-2024. It has been relatively stable since then.
And the proportion reporting that their energy costs are hard to afford had also fallen from the 2022/23 peak.
Worth noting though that the challenge has remained significant for roughly 1-in-3 even as prices have come down
Line chart showing the proportion of households in Great Britain reporting that they would be unable to afford to pay an unexpected, but necessary, expense of £850 in the period from November 2021 to February 2026. Figures are survey based and confidence intervals are shown as a shaded band. The 60-day average rose through 2021 and 2022, peaking just over 30%. It subsequently fell below 25% towards the end of 2024. It has been relatively stable since then.
On some measures, things had been – modestly – improving. For example, the proportion of households saying they wouldn’t be able to afford an unexpected expense of £850 had fallen from over-30% in 2022/23 to under-25% in recent months
Line chart showing the proportion of households in Great Britain reporting that their cost of living had risen since the previous month in the period from November 2021 to February 2026. Figures are survey based and confidence intervals are shown as a shaded band. The proportion rose through 2021 and 2022, peaking at around 90%. It subsequently fell to a low of around 45% towards the end of 2023. It then rose again, before plateauing more recently, to stand at around 55%.
With household finances set to come under pressure again as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, it’s helpful to have new ONS data out today on the state of play just ahead of the first strikes on Iran at the end of Feb. what does it tell us?
Yikes! By posting this though, you have become complicit.
Four children play a game — they are smiling and laughing.
PBE Volunteer and data analyst Ricard De Haro Flores created a tailored Excel-based data management and reporting tool for the Renewal Trust. 🧑💻
First one of 2026
We should therefore probably pay more attention to civil society’s role as a jobs generator. Both in terms of supporting its leading role in driving employment and in doing more to ensure it provides a viable career option for all parts of society.
All data via the DCMS: www.gov.uk/government/s...
Dumbbell chart showing the change in the proportion of all jobs held by different demographic groups (e.g. sex, age, ethnicity) that are accounted for by civil society. Start date is three-year average for 2011-13, end date is three-year average for 2022-24, with arrows showing whether the proportions have risen or fallen for each group.
But the growth has been unevenly distributed. We've had some rebalancing in the civil society profile by age (the sector now accounts for 2.7% of jobs among 25-34-year-olds, up from 2.3%), but the skew towards women and disabled people and away from ethnic minorities has become more pronounced
Bar chart showing the proportion of all growth in jobs between 2011-13 and 2022-24 across different demographic groups (e.g. sex, age, ethnicity) accounted for by civil society jobs. It shows that civil society accounted for 5.6% of all jobs growth, including 7.3% of all growth in jobs held by women, 9.5% of all growth in jobs held by people aged 45-54, 4.9% growth in all jobs held by people with a disability as defined by the Equality Act 210, and 10.6% of all growth in jobs held by white people. Civil society accounted for disproportionately less growth in jobs among people aged 16-24 and ethnic minorities.
First thing to note is the role civil society has played as an engine of jobs growth. Paid civil society jobs climbed by 29% between 2011 and 2024, compared with 13% in the wider economy. Civil society accounted for 2.5% of all jobs in 2011-13, but drove 5.6% of the economy-wide increase to 2022-24
Bar chart comparing the demographic profile of jobs in civil society and in the rest of the economy. It shows that women account for 48% of all jobs in the rest of the economy, but 67% of all civil society jobs. Meanwhile, men account for 52% of all jobs in the wider economy, but just 33% of civil society jobs. Other demographic categories shown include age, disability and ethnicity.
It’s fairly-well understood that the civil society workforce differs from the wider economy. A much higher share of (paid) jobs are held by women (67%/48%) and disabled people (25%/18%), but relatively few by young people (5%/11% of 16-24s) and ethnic minorities (12%/16%). But how did we get here?
Thanks to all in the @pbe.co.uk network: present and former staff, volunteers, associates, trustees, partners, funders and policy colleagues. We're looking forward to doing even more in 2026.
Want to get involved and bolster the strength in numbers we deliver? Take a look: pbe.co.uk/get-involved/
Column chart showing the number of economists engaging with PBE in some form or other (volunteering, attending webinars, training) in each year from 2010. It shows that 174 economists engaged in 2025, easily the largest number of record.
We want to bring the rest of the economist profession with us on this drive to use analytical power to support better outcomes for those at the sharp end of society. Great then to have engaged with a record number last year 👇 helping mainstream a focus on wellbeing across all sectors
Case study box featuring Samuel Thomas, Senior Policy Advisor at the charity Z2K. He provides responses to questions about Z2K's experience of working with PBE, noting that they found PBE to be collaborative, impactful and responsive.
By combining our love of both numbers (data) and numbers (partners), we amplify charities' impact. As with @z2ktrust.bsky.social 👇, where our novel analytical approach shone a new light on the quality-of-life impact of disability benefits and thereby helped inform the wider debate around reform
Case study box featuring a picture of Iseoluwa Adejumo, along with her responses to a series of questions about her experience of volunteering with PBE. Iseoluwa volunteered with Welcome to Badminton, a charity that offers sports sessions for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to support their wellbeing.
'Strength in numbers', both because data is our thing but also because our impact is driven by collaboration with hundreds of people and orgs across the UK. That now includes our 1,000th economist volunteer, Iseoluwa Adejumo, who generously and expertly supported the charity Welcome to Badminton 👇
Really pleased to publish our 2025 impact report, showcasing a year in which we arguably did more than ever before to empower UK charities, unleash civil society's potential, and drive the use of economics for good pbe.co.uk/impact_repor...
Huge credit and thanks to all in the @pbe.co.uk family
Our 2025 impact report – Strength in Numbers – is published today 📣
Really enjoyed discussing what it's like being an @instituteforgovernment.org.uk researcher at the "Working in the think tank sector" event at @resolutionfoundation.org yesterday. Recording available below, with the "Day in a life" panel starting from 1:43.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2S1...
Delighted that we at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk are once again supporting this annual online event aimed at reaching people currently under-represented in the think tank sector… please share with your networks…