Kartik Raj

Menschen mit #bürgergeld und #grundsicherung kommen kaum klar mit dem bisschen Geld, und es ist ne elende Sauerei, dass Menschen, dieAsyl beantragt haben bzw. bekommen, noch rund 100€ weniger bekommen. Wie sollen die denn klarkommen? Und dann noch die fucking #bezahlkarte! Schande für Deutschland!

Strongly recommended weekend reading.

Signs.

Benefits claimants with MS and Parkinson's face universal credit cut Keir Starmer can still ‘avoid a crisis’ by rethinking a key benefit reform, say rebel Labour MPs

ICYMI: Our Senior Policy Advisor warned in @theipaper.com that people with serious, lifelong conditions may not be protected from cuts to the health element of Universal Credit.

inews.co.uk/news/benefit...

The UC review needs to focus on empowering claimants, not only by improving incentives to work (such as work allowance and the taper rate), but by reducing systemic barriers to work, providing specialist support based on mutual respect, and offering a genuine safety net.

The narrative around Universal Credit has long centred around work incentives.

This new briefing examines how effective UC is at encouraging employment – and how that focus may have overshadowed the deeper complexities of getting into work. 🧵

🔗 www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publi...

Would quite like to see this graphic with an additional race filter.

Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams review – the liberal who hates leftists In his caustic critique of identity politics, Williams ends up condemning every kind of collective action

The Guardian review of his most recent book is worth a read. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Very concerning.
I have an idea.
Two, in fact.
Give asylum seekers the right to work.
And increase the restrictions to betting shops. (Or close them down, ideally.)

‘Challenging summer’ for children in struggling families As the long school holiday gets underway, a survey suggests low-income families face a particularly challenging summer with parents feeling more worried this year than last about being able to afford ...

NEW - we asked parents in lower-income families about the summer holidays.

44% said they were likely to need a foodbank.

48% are more worried about being able to afford things for their children this summer holiday, compared to last year.

cpag.org.uk/news/challen...

‘Too Young, Too Poor, Too Romani’: The Women Sterilised Without Consent Decades of forced sterilisations in Czechia and Slovakia reveal a shared legacy of abuse and a struggle to deliver justice.

Decades of forced sterilisations in Czechia and Slovakia reveal a shared legacy of abuse and a struggle to deliver justice
balkaninsight.com/2025/07/23/t...

a man is sliding down a red slide in front of a house .. Alt: a man is sliding down a red plastic children's slide into a swimming pool. he lands comically with only his face entering the swimming pool .

I'm off to do this. I will be back online in a bit over 3 weeks.

commemorative special edition Newport AFC football shirt designed with Athletic Bilbao to commemorate the Basque children exiled to Wales during the Spanish Civil War and their subsequent contribution to life and football in Wales.

commemorative special edition Newport AFC football shirt designed with Athletic Bilbao to commemorate the Basque children exiled to Wales during the Spanish Civil War and their subsequent contribution to life and football in Wales.

commemorative special edition Newport AFC football shirt designed with Athletic Bilbao to commemorate the Basque children exiled to Wales during the Spanish Civil War and their subsequent contribution to life and football in Wales.

❤️💚🤍 www.newport-county.co.uk/news/newport... - what a lovely way to mark the life and contribution of these refugee kids from the Spanish Civil War - the Basque children of 1937 (4,000 in total sought refuge in Britain, how we could learn from those times)

www.newport-county.co.uk/news/newport...

His TikTok content is a bit 😑 though.

Patients in England’s most deprived areas wait longer for NHS treatment, data reveals Areas in east and south-west of England saw patients wait more than a year to begin hospital treatment Patients from the most deprived areas of England face longer waits for NHS treatment and make up a higher proportion of those waiting for care, according to figures. Data released by NHS England on Thursday provides a breakdown of the health service’s waiting lists by ethnicity and deprivation levels for the first time. It shows that people in the most deprived areas of England and people from ethnic minority backgrounds make up a disproportionate and growing proportion of those waiting for NHS treatment. Continue reading...

Patients in England’s most deprived areas wait longer for NHS treatment, data reveals

Nearly ran over Bill Nighy while hurtling out of a Tottenham Court Road side alley in my crappy little hatchback. He shot me his trademark quizzical, annoyed (but bemused) look and then went on his way.

This research in the UK by @rcpch.bsky.social and @cpaguk.bsky.social looking into paediatricians' experiences of addressing the health impact of increasing child poverty is quite the wake up call.

(see also the survey research CPAG does with teaching unions about teachers' experiences)

The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food Federal workers warned for months that the high-energy biscuits would go to waste.

Government Efficiency? www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

See also… like arbitrary rules on social security support for households derived from actuarial averages of number of children per family aren’t ‘a boot on the neck’ of kids who are born third into a family that finds itself on a low income.

Like arbitrary rules derived from fiscal dogma aren’t a ‘boot on the neck’ of people with disabilities who receive social security support.

So much of the brokenness people today are so angry and despairing about was seeded in that time. Public services on their knees. Living standards on the floor. Homelessness & hunger rampant. Eroded trust in politicians and institutions. It was fuelled by narratives attacking people in poverty.

The last time we saw this kind of rhetoric pushed was the 2010s. It enabled decimation of social security support & many public & community services. What happened?
- Destitution shot up
- Food bank need exploded
- Healthy life expectancy fell.
Please don't take us there again

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

Las parejas de lesbianas que no estén casadas ya pueden inscribir a sus hijos en el hospital Una instrucción aplica la reforma de 2023 y establece que la firma en la inscripción del “progenitor no gestante” (antes era solo el padre) implica reconocer que el recién nacido es hijo suyo.

Buenas noticias: Las parejas de lesbianas que no estén casadas ya pueden inscribir a sus hijos en el hospital.

Se modifica la instrucción para inscribir a un recién nacido, cambiando “padre” por “progenitor no gestante”. Así, todo tipo de parejas no casadas quedan incluidas. ⬇️ 👀

Sanktionen in der Grundsicherung: Ausgewählte Forschungsergebnisse aus Veröffentlichungen der Jahre 2021 bis 2024 im Überblick - IAB-Forum Die Wirkungsforschung des IAB zeigt: Sanktionen wirken zwar teilweise, aber durchaus nicht immer in die gewünschte Richtung.

IAB: Sanktionen in der Grundsicherung: Ausgewählte Forschungsergebnisse aus Veröffentlichungen der Jahre 2021 bis 2024 im Überblick: iab-forum.de/sanktionen-i... #Sanktionen #Bürgergeld

A kitchen sink with a label that says “DO NOT LEAVE SPOONS HERE”. Some miscreant has left a fork and knife there instead.

Ps. The key is how you interpret the label and work around it, while complying formally with the printed instruction. See, for example.

Place a small shelving unit on it, like a two tier in-tray. And then use that. It will wind the label writer up no end.

Remembering Srebrenica 11 July

The Srebrenica genocide is one of the darkest pages of European history.

In July 1995, 30 years ago, thousands of men and boys were murdered solely because of their ethnicity and religion.

Let us remember and learn from it.

#NeverForget

Over 1.6 million children live in families made poorer by the two-child limit on benefits – new data The two child limit and benefit cap leave many families living with extreme financial insecurity.

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...