Luke Young

I’m really looking forward to joining Shelter Cymru and colleagues across Wales at the People & Homes Conference in October

Join us if you can

Luke Young, Head of Policy with Citizens Advice

How do voters in Wales view housing and how do they prioritise it as an issue for the Senedd election next year? @lukeyoung.bsky.social, Head of Policy with @citizensadvice.bsky.social, will be one of the panelists discussing this at our People & Homes Conference. Register now: bit.ly/44hthxK

Making full use of the cinema air conditioning I’ve seen Superman and Jurassic World.

Superman is fantastic. Both the lead and Lex Luthor. Excellent film 🦸🏻‍♂️

The dinosaurs were fun too 🦕 🦖

Statement We, Disability Wales, Bevan Foundation, The Trussell Trust, Citizens Advice and All Wales Forum, as organisations working to tackle poverty and advance the rights and inclusion of disabled people, categorically reject recent media reports suggesting that changes to disability welfare proposals could threaten the removal of the two-child benefit cap. These claims imply that vital support for disabled people comes at the expense of families in poverty, setting groups against each other. We firmly reject this notion. Disabled people are disproportionately affected by poverty; these issues are interconnected, not competing. Disabled families across Wales already live in poverty, including children. It is unacceptable to pit one vulnerable group against another. Neither disabled people nor those living in poverty should be forced into a false choice about whose support is more deserving. We have long called for policies that lift all people out of hardship, and alternative, fairer approaches to funding social security. We stand together in solidarity to demand a coproduced, compassionate and inclusive approach to policy-making that upholds the rights and dignity of all.

📢Joint statement.

We stand united with organisations working to tackle poverty and advance the rights and inclusion of disabled people in rejecting harmful narratives that pit communities against each other.

These are not competing issues.

1) New report alert 📚! Written by@dremilylynn.bsky.social and myself, it looks at the relationship between health and work. It is the first report from our wider project on health inequalities, funded by @healthfoundation.bsky.social‬. 🔗 www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publi...

Does every shop really need a dj? Who’s asking for this

bsky.app/profile/davi...

We’re asking all MPs to vote against the UCPIP Bill today.

The government’s own impact assessment says the cuts will plunge 150,000 people into poverty by the end of this Parliament.

This is likely an underestimate.

MPs must protect their disabled constituents and vote against this Bill.

Unity across disability organisations and charities in calling for MPs to vote against the UC & PIP Bill today www.ucpipbill.co.uk/wp-content/u...

If the UCPIP Bill becomes law it will cut PIP for over 400k disabled people & UC for over 700k people who are disabled or have a long-term health condition by 2030. Government’s own impact assessment says the cuts will plunge 150k people into poverty by the end of this Parliament

If Parliament votes in favour of the UCPIP Bill it will enshrine an arbitrary cut in law. We welcome the Timms Review but once again the government is doing things in the wrong order. @CitizensAdvice is asking MPs to vote against these proposals and calling on government to step back and think again

These are not reforms Written by Laura Hutchinson and Tom MacInnes

Exempting current claimants from harmful cuts does not mean profound harm will not be inflicted as result of UCPIP bill.

Citizens Advice is urging MPs to vote against the bill. These are not reforms. They are cuts to people who can least afford it.

wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/these-are-no...

🚨 MP Debbie Abrahams said that one of the offers the government is making today is not what rebel negotiators thought they had negotiated.

Says there has been "row back" and tells ITV that "We're not there yet."

A busy, productive time at Welsh Labour Conference.

Thanks to all who came to Trussell’s event on poverty & food banks.

This weekend was a good opportunity to reflect on the shared position of many in Llandudno that the UCPIP Bill should not be voted through at Second Reading.

I have deep concerns that once again for millennials & younger the social contract & safety net frays more - particularly without familial wealth.

Education = success?
Buy a home?
Kids have a better life than you?
Decent retirement?

None of these are secure any more.

And now govt adding welfare

Just spoke to @timesradio with a bit of myth busting on PIP and response to rebel deal.

Yes, big concessions from govt for current claimants but this is a political fix that creates unequal policy.

All it takes is illness or life event for any of us to need PIP. People will have less.

PIP helps people with the additional costs and helps many disabled people stay in work.

Cutting PIP is cutting employment support

V kind, thank you

Good to speak to Sky News on the impact changes to disability benefits will have, and why the Govt should pause and reassess - failing that MPs should vote for the Reasoned Amendment and against the current Bill on Tuesday

Welsh government expresses major concerns over benefit cuts They warn disabled people fear planned welfare changes will leave them unable to make ends meet.

Overwhelming opposition to benefits cuts, Welsh ministers say www.bbc.com/news/article...

Welcome to see a growing number of MPs publicly opposing the planned PiP and UC cuts.

If those on the fence need any more evidence of what the right thing to do is this should focus the mind. 👇

Sincerely hope the UK Government rethink these plans.

Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill - On Tuesday 1st July, MPs will be asked to vote on the UC & PIP Bill, which contains the biggest cuts to social security in a decade. This briefing from ten organisations including Scope, Citizens Advi...

NEW: A coalition of anti-poverty, advice and disability organisations are asking MPs to vote against the UC & PIP Bill, which contains the biggest cuts to social security in a decade.

A briefing from orgs inc Citizens Advice, Scope, Mind, JRF and Trussell available here

www.ucpipbill.co.uk

I’m thinking about my trans friends who face horrific prejudice and the LGBT+ people who are not yet free.

We’re not going back in the closet. We’re marching forward together.

Happy Pride

There are threats to the progress made for LGBT+ people all around us.The promise that things will always get better has been broken.

But as with every broken promise, we live and learn and grow and fight back.

Happy #PrideCymru to all who celebrate and protest 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Looking back on the shy(ish), panicked, closeted kid I used to be, I can hardly recognise myself.

And that’s the point, right? That we all have the freedom to be ourselves without fear or being told we are not welcome.

Why we’re asking MPs to vote against the bill to cut disability benefits Today, the government laid its Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill before parliament. It details plans to cut billions…

Today, the government laid its Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill before parliament. But what's actually in the bill and what happens next?

New blog out now: wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/why-were-ask...

Important to meet MPs, Peers & support staff in Westminster this week.

Across meetings and drop-ins we hammered home the urgent need for welfare measures in the government's child poverty strategy, and the damaging impact disability benefit cuts will have on the children and families we support

Free school meals for more children in England is a positive thing, but there’s a catch | Polly Toynbee The government’s announcement won’t mean much if disability and Pip cuts push more families into poverty, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

“Of the many severe critiques of the government’s Pathways to Work plan for these disability cuts, one of the most authoritative is the Citizens Advice response, Pathways to Poverty.”

Pleased to see our policy work on disability cuts is cutting through

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

All spending review allocations next week will of course drive consequentials for Welsh Government - in same process that saw difficult tax choices made last autumn drive the extra £1.5bn for Wales.

Thanks to @annkempster.com for pointing out Torsten’s message here

We will be asking Welsh Government what they plan to do with the money - and encouraging extending FSM to secondary pupils where parents in receipt of UC