Dr Hayley Bennett

'Broken' council tax system to change as millions found to be behind on bills

Brits are collectively in £8.3bn of council tax debt but changes are on the way to prevent bailiffs visiting after one missed payment.

3 year Research Associate post working on evaluation of #CommunityWealthBuilding working with me @uofglasgow.bsky.social and colleagues from @glasgowcaledonian.bsky.social and Lancaster: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research...

Weekend Reading: Rethinking the Role of Place in UK Higher Education Policy - HEPI In a HEPI note prompted by a Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) conference, Nick Hillman asked: Should the seminal Robbins report inform the forthcoming post-16 strate...

Interesting stuff about how universities can rebuild a sense of place, locality and loyalty - including ringfenced money to do that and a place in devolution deals. But really it's all pie in the sky while we run an unregulated 'market' for students. www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/08/02/w...

Sobering read: ‘we are an error margin from the first right-wing Welsh government in history’

The disastrous dismantling of the humanities in Australia’s universities has begun

Opinion | "Humanities and social sciences academics are signing petitions, writing open letters and organising actions in response to these threats to their jobs. They are anxious and angry."

“The University has paid a private consulting company KPMG to produce a report to justify redundancies, which they are refusing to share with the trade unions.” Would love to know how much money uni leaders across UK have spent on consultants rather than talking to staff about workloads & savings.

Sign the Petition Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable

Hello UK friends - please, please could you sign this petition against the job cuts at my place of work - 1 in 4 us will be out of a job by August next year if we don't stop the cuts. And once you've signed it, please share. We need your help! www.change.org/p/stop-mass-...

RSE awards over £724K to boost Scotland’s vibrant research sector We are pleased to announce that 72 exceptional research projects were selected at the spring 2025 Research Awards open call.

Back from annual leave to great news: our project on the rise of Reform UK in Scotland - co-led with A. Convery (and in collaboration with F. McMillan) has been awarded RSE funding. Starting Oct 2025, it explores Reform's breakthrough in Scotland in comparative perspective
rse.org.uk/rse-awards-o...

Obstruction on the line: Employment Rights Bill delayed by peers’ amendments Workers anticipating overdue improvements to their rights will have to wait longer after Tory and Lib Dem peers voted to water down key protections.

www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/obstru...

The figure shows, disabled people – especially those who are also carers – are overrepresented in non-traditional work (defined here as flexible contracts, gig economy roles or solo self-employment). Among working adults in low-to-middle income families (the left panel of the figure), one-third (33 per cent) of those who are disabled are in some form of non-traditional work, rising to 37 per cent of those who are also carers, compared to 26 per cent of those who are neither. Even among higher-income families – who are generally less likely to be in non-traditional work – 30 per cent of those who are both disabled and carers are in these forms of work, nearly double the rate for higher-income adults without disabilities or caring responsibilities.

Disabled people – especially those who are also carers – are overrepresented in non-traditional work.

One-in-three disabled people in low-to-middle income families are on a flexible contract, work in the gig economy, or are solo self-employed.

Resharing this for people interested in multi-level social policy & job centres. We introduce some basic considerations but are happy to engage in more detailed discussions about spatial & devolved variations through @spaemploysocsec.bsky.social or the @safety-nets.bsky.social project. 👇🏻

RSE awards over £724K to boost Scotland’s vibrant research sector We are pleased to announce that 72 exceptional research projects were selected at the spring 2025 Research Awards open call.

Great to see that our excellent @ccc-research.bsky.social colleagues @davidevampa.bsky.social and Alan Convery have been awarded a RSE grant to explore Scottish Politics (specifically Reform Party): 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

rse.org.uk/rse-awards-o...

Sky-high cost of rent means ageing tenants 'won't be able to retire'

1.2 million extra pensioners will be privately renting by the 2040s and it is set to cost the Treasury an extra £2bn in housing benefit.

In this blog we outline how UK government changes to Jobcentre Plus might play out in Scotland where skills, careers, health, are devolved responsibilities. We also ask whether it's an opportunity for a more radical rethinking of what a job centre is for.

Blog: The future of Jobcentre Plus in Scotland: Multi-level messiness or a window of opportunity? - Social Policy Association Dr Hayley Bennett (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Sioned Pearce (University of Cardiff) The UK Government’s labour market policy reforms have attracted attention and controversy [...]

📣 New blog: 'The future of Jobcentre Plus in Scotland: Multi-level messiness or a window of opportunity?'

By Dr Hayley Bennett (@haylesben.bsky.social) and Dr Sioned Pearce (@sionedps.bsky.social).

Read on the SPA website here ➡️ social-policy.org.uk/news/blog-th...

An excellent job opportunity to work for @jrf-uk.bsky.social in Scotland. Senior Policy Advisor (Scotland): jrf.octo-firstclass.co.uk/candidates/c...

Might be an excellent fit for @uoe-sps.bsky.social colleagues & graduates

New blog series alert - how austerity alters disabled people's lives + futures.
-Open to all: researchers, activitists, lived experts.
-Your blog will be received with care + consideration. -You'll be supported to publication on our website & we will promote it on social media and our news list.
✊️🩷

Devolving digitalisation: local government, local welfare and the digital welfare state There is increasing interest in examining the digital welfare state. To date, much ethical and analytical scrutiny of digital welfare has focused on the large, nation-state level initiatives of dig...

"Devolving digitalisation: local government, local welfare and the digital welfare state" by @jedmeers.bsky.social and @haylesben.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Articles that comprise a new Special Issue (in the Debates in Social Welfare in the Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law) are accessible via early online view. Edited by @jedmeers.bsky.social & @haylesben.bsky.social the SI includes 5 papers examining the ‘interface first welfare state’ ⬇️

UK university job cuts put at 20,000 after full impact ‘hidden’ Number of roles affected could be almost double previous estimates when voluntary schemes and hiring freezes factored in, say researchers

'Rebecca Harrison, a former lecturer at The Open University, said that the extent of the deterioration of job security in universities was “alarming”, adding that institutions had not been transparent about the extent of the cuts occurring in the sector.' 1/3

Universities Degraded: Staff Experiences & Employer Practices of Redundancies in UK Higher Education.
New report on the human and academic consequences of massive redundancies in UK universities. From David Harvie and Rebecca Harrison
@ucu
zenodo.org/records/1563...

I think this link might take you to the full report pdf: zenodo.org/records/1563...

Phil Baty, LinkedIn: "while 8,900 people are being, or have recently been, affected by compulsory redundancies across 165 institutions, a further 11,500 people have been affected by “back-door” redundancies, such as voluntary severance and redundancy schemes and non-renewal of fixed-term contracts"

UK university job cuts put at 20,000 after full impact ‘hidden’ Number of roles affected could be almost double previous estimates when voluntary schemes and hiring freezes factored in, say researchers

Last week I was wondering how many jobs in HE are currently being cut (despite ever increasing research, teaching, and admin workloads). Well an article in THE says around 20,000 (paywalled I think) www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-univ...

Holyrood 2026: the big issues [with BSL] - Buy tickets With the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2026, join the academics who will set out the demographic, fiscal, technological and social policy challenges that lie ahead for Scotland.

We're back at @parliament.scot Festival of Politics this year! Join us👇

🗳️ Holyrood 2026: The big issues
📅 Fri 22 Aug, 10:30am

@profnicolamcewen.bsky.social, @graemeroy.bsky.social, @shannonvallor.bsky.social, @haylesben.bsky.social

Tickets 🎟️ festivalofpolitics.citizenticket.co.uk/events/festi...

Building a politics of respect from the ground up We sit down with Kim McGuinness, Mayor of the North East, to discuss devolution and the politics of respect

Building a politics of respect from the ground up with @kimmcguinness.bsky.social.

We sit down with the Mayor of the North East, to discuss devolution, the politics of respect, and why building an ‘infrastructure of opportunity’ matters. ecosystem-project.ucl.ac.uk/home/ideas-f...

Our new paper on "Place-based solidarity: Crisis, austerity and the devolution of responsibility"

authors: Coco Huggins and Mia Gray

is now available free online: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Don't forget about us • Resolution Foundation This briefing note combines quantitative data with insights from focus groups to explore how disabilities and caring responsibilities affect these families’ lives and living standards.

ICYMI - new report out yesterday by me and Imogen Stone on how disabilities and caring affect low-to-middle income families, drawing on quant analysis and focus groups with disabled people and carers. Thread on key findings below 🧵 www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

quote from focus group - “I do claim Carer’s Allowance. And for my job, it’s quite a high-paying job, so I could earn probably like £40 or £30 an hour. And the limit for Carer’s Allowance is, the maximum you can earn, it’s £139 a week.39 Then that stops. So, there’s not really an incentive for me to work, because if can make like £139 for four hours, they’ll stop my Carer’s Allowance … [even though] I want to work.” (Participant caring for disabled parent)

[Do you feel valued by society for your caring role?] “Well, I mean, the state values carers at £70 a week ... or something nonsense like that. So until Carer’s Allowance is raised to a minimum wage or a liveable wage, I don’t think carers can claim there’s parity there within society.” (Participant caring for disabled adult child)

Carer’s Allowance has a strict earnings cliff edge; those earning more than £196 a week lose access entirely.

The Allowance is also lower than other non-means-tested benefits - reinforcing a broader perception among many carers in our focus groups that their care work is undervalued by society.

Blog: Will “banning” zero-hours contracts impact on those who are in them? social-policy.org.uk/news/blog-wi... #employmentrightsbill @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social @openuniversity.bsky.social