Ilona Pinter 🧡

Despite the good quality of this debate, there's a lack of consideration given to the proposed penalties for access to benefits, which are likely to punish individuals and families unevenly. Families with children & those in need will be discouraged from accessing support.

Parliamentlive.tv Westminster Hall

MP quoting from his constituent - a migrant worker: 'we are needed but never welcomed' parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/...

Encouraging to see so many MPs raise concerns about the gov's earned settlement reforms & refugee reforms that will inflict harm to children & families especially those on low-income, ppl in need & marginalised groups & pushing more into poverty...

Refugee mental health and employment

Useful resource for anyone submitting a response to Earned Settlement proposals from perspective of refugees - Home Office research on refugee mental health & access to employment: highlights barriers caused by mental ill health & need for e.g. benefits & secure housing www.gov.uk/government/p...

Hong Kong BN(O) Migrants Panel Survey Wave 2 Result Seminar Discover Wave 1 & 2 findings of the BN(O) Panel Survey on 11 Feb 2026. Panels on community and research findings. Join us for insights!

Hong Kong migrants to the UK, 5 years on: we present preliminary findings from Wave 2 of our @ukri.org funded panel survey.

www.eventbrite.com/e/hong-kong-...

All Scottish children need extra help, not just babies EVERY day, around 125 babies are born in Scotland. Each new life represents a new beginning but also significant, and often scary, changes for their…

‘All Scottish children need extra help, not just babies’

The Scottish Child Payment increase for babies is welcome, but costs of childhood do not end when they turn one, writes @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social and Ilona Pinter for @scotnational.bsky.social

www.thenational.scot/politics/257...

This is today! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Graphic showing text 3 in 10 children in the UK are living in poverty and an image of a child and their colourful backpack

text reads 1 in 5 working age adults in the UK are living in poverty, over an image of a person on the way to work

text reads 1 in 6 pensioners in the UK are living in poverty over an image of an elderly woman facing away from the camera

The data shows us that children suffer the highest rates of poverty within the different sections of the population.

📈 At the time the Labour government came to power, there were 4.5 million children in poverty, up 600,000 on pre-pandemic levels.

This is a damning statistic.

✍️ Are you conducting research, or have first-hand experience of border control? Want to share your perspective with the wider public? Write for us! We welcome contributions from practitioners, academics and people with lived experience.

More info & how to submit ➡️ blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/border-crimi...

She's not alone of course. Labour have promised to ramp up forced removals, including of children & families. As we're seeing in the US, it's impossible to do mass removals non-violently & the bigger the operation, the more violence we're likely to see.

Listening to Badenoch this morning on DiDs about her politics & the importance of freedom, it's hard not to think of her pledge to import an ICE-style removals force esp with what's happening in the US. Not something she was asked about on DiD of course but is THIS what she means by freedom?

Home Affairs Committee - Written evidence - Committees - UK Parliament Written evidence submission publications for Home Affairs Committee.

There is a huge volume of submissions, reflecting how important, controversial and IMO vindictive and damaging these proposals are. Linked below

Good ones from @ippr.org, @ilonapin.bsky.social, @nandosigona.bsky.social & many others [2/3]

committees.parliament.uk/committee/83...

Exclusive | Great Ormond Street Hospital cleaners win landmark racial discrimination ruling Tribunal finds Black cleaners were kept on worse pay and conditions than other NHS staff

'Not one, not two, but 80 cleaners at Great Ormond Street Hospital have won a landmark legal case after the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled they were subjected to indirect racial discrimination over pay and working conditions.'

www.blackcurrentnews.co.uk/p/exclusive-...

All Scottish children need extra help, not just babies EVERY day, around 125 babies are born in Scotland. Each new life represents a new beginning but also significant, and often scary, changes for their…

Full article: www.thenational.scot/politics/257...

As politicians and their advisers consider what pledges to make in these manifestos, they should think of the 125 babies being born in Scotland today, and the opportunity they have to make sure every one of them can have the very best life possible, and not just in their first year.

These are crucial next steps, which will hopefully feature in many of the parties’ manifestos for the May elections.

More on our findings & recommendations here: familyfinances.study/Investing-in... and the Family Finances study: familyfinances.study - in partnership with @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social @kittyjstewart.bsky.social @katejandersen.bsky.social Suzanna Nesom @ilonapin.bsky.social @cpagscotland.bsky.social

They could do this by extending the age range to include 16-19yos still in education, aligning with rules for Child Benefit. Support should also be available to children who currently miss out because their parents have ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) so no access to UC, CB or SCP.

It was right to increase the Scottish Child Payment to £40 for babies. But SG should have been braver & increased it for all children on a low income.

Our comparative mixed-methods study spoke to 60 parents with children on UC in Scotland (40) & England (20). While all parents in Scotland who received SCP welcomed any extra support they got, many also spoke about the struggles they still faced, which would best be eased by boosting support.

But for parents like Elspeth – a single mum with a teenager - the SCP “helped massively”. She said: “It does take a bit of the weight off your mind, especially when you are doing it all yourself and you’ve got everything else to worry about on top of the money situation.”

We also find that the fear of some in gov that raising SCP further could create a cliff-edge that disincentives transitions and increases in employment is not supported by the evidence. sticerd.lse.ac.uk/CASE/_NEW/PU...

Our findings show that SCP makes a real & lasting difference, allowing families to spend more on essentials like food & utility bills as well as investing in children's activities & well-being. sticerd.lse.ac.uk/case/_new/pu...

While this is welcome news, our evidence from the Family Finances study shows that families with older children also need more support. And there are children in poverty who are currently ineligible for SCP altogether.

Some of this will go for increasing Scottish Child Payment, which is paid to families with children who are receiving Universal Credit aged 0-15yo. SG will increase SCP to £28.20 per week per child for 2026-27 & will add a 'baby premium' from April 2027 for under 1yos.

First Minister Swinney had committed to mitigating the two-child limit from April this year if Westminster did not act to abolish it so Starmer’s decision freed up almost £130 million for SG to invest elsewhere to further its commitments on child poverty.

Child poverty rates in Scotland are falling which is good news. Latest figures show a child poverty rate of 23% in Scotland cpag.org.uk/news/child-p... But SC has (rightly) set itself a target of getting child poverty below 10% by 2030 so there's still a long way to go.

Last week the Scottish Gov Budget set out a raft of measures including how it would be cutting child poverty to meet its targets & changes to the Scottish Child Payment www.gov.scot/publications...
@ruthpatrick0.bsky.social
@uofgussp.bsky.social
#childpoverty
#ScottishChildPayment
#FamilyFinances

Our piece with @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social in response to last week's Scottish Budget @scotnational.bsky.social While ⬆️ Scottish Child Payment for 🚼 from next year is very welcome ✅ we think all children in Scotland living in poverty need more support & here's why: www.thenational.scot/politics/257...

Probably worth a read for anyone who wants to know more about where the UK is headed:

'The Production of Precarity in Denmark’s Asylum Regime' www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...