A year ago today I joined some of the incredible @changingrealities.bsky.social parents at Downing Street who shared what changes are needed to end child poverty - incl why the two-child limit must be scrapped. Itās brilliant to see yesterdayās announcement after so much hard work from so many.
All the 2 child limit did was to "increase poverty" explains @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social
We didn't hear nearly enough this week about the 2CL being an abject failure on its own terms. A different kind of conversation about social security is badly needed
theconversation.com/the-two-chil...
The fight to end child poverty goes on. But today we must celebrate. It will make a real, lasting difference to families the breadth of the UK and Iām so grateful to everyone in @changingrealities.bsky.social & @cpaguk.bsky.social who have advocated tirelessly for its full abolition
Today we have the official government statements on digital ID and I would add a few things to what I am seeing on here. 1) The UK is an ID-poor country. The relative difficulty of getting a recognised ID, and the share of citizens without a recognised ID would be unthinkable in continental Europe.
šØ For the first time the EU will present an Anti-Poverty Strategy in 2026.
We need more than words. We need action. šŖ
#Poverty isnāt just an economic issue, itās a violation of human rights.
š Join us in pushing for real change: www.eapn.eu/coalition-on...
Our paper āYou Canāt Sacrifice Nothingā: Exploring the lived realities of chronic poverty in a cost-of-living crisis through participatory research t.co/ppoYu0wQXm was based on our collaborative research with West Cheshire Inspirers
Scrapping the two-child limit on benefits would be the most targeted and cost-effective way for the Government to meet its aim of reducing child poverty.
UN calls for human rights assessment of governmentās benefit cuts bill and mental health reforms
#UNCRPD #CRPD #UniversalCredit #MentalHealthBill
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/un-calls-for...
We can all agree that the current systems of Special Educational Needs support are failing but the next step is to agree what change is needed to build a better, more inclusive system that works for all children
www.changingrealities.org/writings/wha...
[short š§µ, launching new @changing_r note]
As they arrive at the Labour Party Conference, we're greeting Keir Starmer and his MPs with a message that demands a screen bigger than 21,000 mobile phones*:
"What was the point of winning the general election if not to lift kids out of poverty?"
1/3
Chart showing limitations to paid work disabled people and carers can do. The top set of bars shows that nearly one-third (31 per cent) of disabled people in low-to-middle income families are not working at all due to ill-health. But among those in work, more than half report that their physical health limits the type or amount of work they can do (58 per cent and 54 per cent respectively) or that their mental health affects their ability to accomplish as much as they would otherwise be able to (51 per cent). Similarly, among low-to-middle income carers who provide care for someone they live with, the impacts of caring responsibilities go beyond the one-third (34 per cent) who are unable to work at all: among those who are in work, two-fifths (41 per cent) say they are unable to work as much as they would like due to providing care
More than half of disabled people who are in paid work report limitations to the amount or type of work they can do.
The reasons for limited access to paid employment are varied, as shown in the chart.
Read more ā”ļø buff.ly/kNMSUQa
The proportion of working-age adults in low-to-middle income households who report having a disability has increased from 19% in the mid-1990s to 30% last year. Disability is now twice as common in the poorer half of Britain compared to the richer half. These trends have driven a rise in caring responsibilities. One-in-ten low-to-middle income families in Britain today include both a disabled member and an unpaid carer.
Disability and unpaid care carry a big income penalty. People living with a disabled person and a carer are three-times as likely to experience material deprivation as those who donāt. Even after adjusting for family type, families including a disabled person and carer suffer a Ā£3,300 a year income penalty compared to those that donāt .
While much of the current focus is on getting people into work, limited employment can prove just as big an income barrier. Two-fifths of working carers are unable to work as much as theyād like. One-in-three disabled people in low-to-middle income families work in atypical forms of work like Zero Hours Contracts and self-employment ā a far higher share than those without a disability.
Employment Rights Bill provisions, including guaranteed hours and more notice of shift changes, should benefit disabled workers. The cliff edge in Carersā Allowance (all support is withdrawn once someone earns over Ā£196/week) should be replaced by a tapering of support. The Government should also level up the value of unpaid care - starting by raising the care element of Universal Credit and extending carersā leave from one to four weeks.
How do disabilities and caring responsibilities affect British families?
Read 'Don't forget about us' to learn more ā”ļø buff.ly/kNMSUQa
We seem to be entering a dark period. Disabled people always faced prejudice, but it's so dangerous when public figures fuel it, amp up suspicion & the idea disabled people are either faking or burdens. Compassion & justice are our core values, we need to stay true to them. 1/2
Labour MPs have voted to impose Ā£2 billion-a-year cuts on disabled people who cannot work, despite a last-minute intervention by UN disability rights experts, and repeated warnings that the bill will cost lives.
#BinUCBill #DWP
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/government-i...
The divergence in child versus pensioner income trends over both halves of the 2020s is also not new. In 2002-03 pensioners and children had very similar typical equivalised household incomes, but between then and 2023-24 the median pensioner income grew by 32 per cent and the child figure by 7 per cent (with the typical working-age income growing by 8 per cent). In cash terms, the equivalised household income gap between pensioners and children has grown from roughly zero in the early 2000s to over Ā£5,000 by 2023-24 and potentially over Ā£7,000 by 2029-30. As we explore below, this is also reflected in poverty figures.
The typical pensioner and typical childās household income were once very similar, but have diverged.
In cash terms, the equivalised household income gap between pensioners and children has grown from roughly zero in the early 2000s to over Ā£5,000 by 2023-24 and potentially over Ā£7,000 by 2029-30.
Great video from our friends @savechildrenuk.bsky.social
The government must scrap the two-child limit.
It hasn't made much of a splash, but new figures out today show that close to 1.7 million children live in families affected by the two-child limit. This can & must change as @kittyjstewart.bsky.social and I argue in @theconversation.com theconversation.com/over-1-6-mil...
@easp-spa-2025.bsky.social has left me feeling really inspired after hearing about so much fantastic research going on. Also enjoyed presenting my findings on the scope for #solidarity in the face #stigma for people living in #poverty and reliant on social security benefits
Conference lanyard
Abstract of Paper Stigma functions as a divisive mechanism to craft and augment inequalities in power through driving support for increasingly punitive social policies, weakening social solidarity and eroding the potential for collective resistance. In liberal welfare regime types such as the UK, welfare support is residualised and deeply intertwined with stigma. Under such conditions, examining how individuals and communities navigate and challenge these dynamics is important. This paper draws on PhD research ā a qualitative project with women claiming social security benefits in the UK ā to contribute to understandings of how stigma, as an assault on collective, class-based solidarities, is experienced, resisted and responded to. On the one hand, participants rejected individualising, blaming narratives, and indicated the potential of community solidarity and cohesion in challenging stigma. Nonetheless, the findings also revealed a contradictory tendency towards the partial acceptance and internalisation of dominant stigmatising ideas and, connected to this, the defensive practice of āotheringā fellow claimants, reflecting the divisive and corrosive power of stigma in weakening social solidarity and limiting the complete rejection or disavowal of stigmatising discourses. By interrogating the intersection of stigma and the structural erosion of welfare support and drawing on empirical research findings, this paper contributes to critical debates on social policy, offering insights into how neoliberal frameworks exacerbate social fragmentation and how alternative forms of solidarity might emerge in response.
