Ben Baumberg Geiger

83/ I don't think it's at all reasonable to run a campaign literally entitled 'change' and then get mad at voters for being pissed off that things haven't meaningfully changed.

The Government must strengthen employer incentives to create more opportunities for disabled workers by focusing on the four Rs. Reimbursement Improving the Access to Work scheme will help reimburse employers with costs that go beyond reasonable adjustments. Reporting Employment and pay gap reporting can help drive change, but should not be turned into crude quotes Reintegration The biggest impacts will come from incentivising employers to reintegrate existing workers - we recommend doing this through a new 'Right to Reintegration'. Recruitment Retention efforts should be complemented by a new levy or government-funded return-to-work recruitment incentive. Supporting people with health conditions and disabilities into work is crucial for boosting both living standards and economic growth.

How can the Government could strengthen employer incentives to create more opportunities for disabled workers?

Our latest report lays out four key things to focus on➡️ buff.ly/d9KvJpj

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...

figure 14 shows that at the same time as there has been substantial unmet demand for social care – which has pushed the burden onto unpaid carers – spending in England on services that support unpaid carers, including respite care, has fallen by nearly a third (31 per cent) since 2014-15 (the earliest comparable data), or by 36 per cent per carer in the population. As a result, fewer carers have accessed such support: between 2012-13 and 2023-24, the proportion of carers that received home care or help for the person they care for fell from two-fifths (41 per cent) to just under a third (31 per cent), and those accessing day centres or day activities dropped from nearly a third (31 per cent) to just over onefifth (23 per cent).7

There is substantial unmet demand for social care – which has pushed the burden onto unpaid carers.

At the same time, spending in England on services that support unpaid carers, including respite care, has fallen by nearly a third.

The single most important truth in public finance elegantly stated.

Making Britain work for everyone • Resolution Foundation Boosting employment among people with a health condition or disability is a crucial part of this Government’s agenda; from reaching an employment rate of 80 per cent, to reducing economic inactivity a...

And that's a wrap! Watch back our event

Making Britain work for everyone: How can employers go further to recruit and retain disabled workers?
W/ Charlie Mayfield, Beth Kume-Holland, Rachel Suff @louisemurphy.bsky.social & @ruthcurtice.bsky.social here

www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/makin...

Opening doors • Resolution Foundation Improving employment outcomes for disabled people is essential not just for raising living standards, but also for supporting economic growth. To increase the employment of disabled people, the report...

How can we support employers to hire and retain disabled staff?

@benbgeiger.bsky.social and I explore this question, and set out four concrete policy proposals, in a new @resfoundation.bsky.social report out today: www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Researchers value null results, but struggle to publish them Survey finds that fear of reputational harm and a lack of support and publication platforms are among respondents’ key concerns.

Scientists overwhelmingly recognize the value of sharing null results, but rarely publish them in the research literature

go.nature.com/450KElr

How can employers be encouraged to go further to recruit and retain disabled workers?
@resfoundation.bsky.social event this Thursday, launching a report by @louisemurphy.bsky.social and me, with a great panel including Charlie Mayfield

New call for papers: Şerife Tekin and Jonathan Tsou are the guest editor of a special issue dedicated to Ian Hacking and the Philosophy of Psychiatry. Submit your work here: think.taylorandfranc... Deadline 1 February 2026. think.taylorandfranc... #philsky #philsci #philpsy

🚨🚨🚨 NEW WORKING PAPER: "The Benefits of UI for Marginally Attached Workers" with Brendan Moore

➡️ We find that UI minimally delays re-employment, but substantially improves labor market outcomes for low-income workers

🧵1/13

Me too!

Why Clarity Feels Dangerous (Especially If You’re an Academic) The Hardest Work in Writing Is Saying What You Really Mean

George Orwell warned: bad writing leads to bad thinking.

Academia trains us to write for journals, not the public.
Clarity feels risky, because it exposes us.

But clear communication is essential for democracy.
So how do we do it?

🧵

New post 👉 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/why-clarit...

I am writing to ask you to delete the official King’s account on X, or at least to stop posting there, and to instruct other official KCL accounts to do the same “Grok” – which is the official X integrated AI/chat feature – is now directly praising Hitler and calling for Jews and others to be put in concentration camps. This is ,as widely reported, the direct result of its reprogramming by Elon Musk. In other words, it’s not that X has been largely overrun by far-right accounts – although that is also the case – this directly Nazi propaganda is coming directly from X itself/its senior management There is absolutely no excuse or justification for us to have any presence there at all any more and we should stop

I have sent this email to my Director of Comms at KCL and would encourage others to do likewise.

Ahead of the expected proscription of Palestine Action - the first time a protest group has been legally redefined as terrorist - I went through the Hansard of the 2000 Act they're being banned under. Turns out MPs were assured the law wouldn't be applied this way. Thread 🧵🔽

A photo of the book Platformland by Richard Pope

Been reading this by @richardpope.org in my lunch hours and it’s rewiring how I think about public services and the policy building behind them. It’s also really nicely written. Strong recommend.

The October budget is such a nightmare. Likely big OBR downgrade, jittery bond market, stupid tax pledge, no room to cut services or welfare without a rebellion. Seriously grim for the government.

Think one of the lasting impacts of the welfare row, wherever the policy ends up is going to be this - a growing perception that Labour is divided - with a stark difference in perceptions of unity, fairly or not, between Reform and Labour.

Screenshot of text: Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker dismisses the government’s latest concession, saying that - just like promises on Hillsborough - "if it is not written down it, it is not worth the paper is written on". She attacks the "incoherent and shambolic nature of this process". Her point - echoed by other MPs - is that they will not be voting tonight on the latest government concession. They will be voting on the bill as it stands. Timms has promised to remove clause 5, so that any changes to Pip will be made after his review has been published at a later stage. But it seems Barker, for one, does not trust his promise.

Wow - it now sounds like the Govt is removing the PIP changes from the UC-PIP bill entirely.

All that remains is the cut to UC-Health for new applicants, and the (welcome) increase to the basic rate of UC.

This would mean the Govt has lost all the welfare savings it hoped to make this decade.

The big political lesson here is: don’t do things there isn’t an intellectual defence for!

The share of employees in low pay (defined as people with hourly pay below 2/3 median) has fallen to an all time low of 3 per cent thanks to increases in the minimum wage.

That awkward thing where you write an annual report called 'Low Pay Britain' but 'low pay' has been all but eliminated (on the standard hourly pay < 2/3 median measure).

(Our 2025 Low Pay Britain report is out on Thursday, launch event here www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/new-d... )

We are coming together as organisations committed to fighting poverty, providing advice, and supporting and championing the rights of disabled people, their families, and carers. We are calling for the UK government to withdraw the UC & PIP Bill

Full statement: www.ucpipbill.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Who will be most affected by changes to the PIP assessment?

@louisemurphy.bsky.social‬ explains the probable impacts on different groups by age and condition.

Really they should start again and try to do a proper reform. But they've made such a mess of things they daren't be seen to back down again.

DWP confirms 4-point rule won't apply to existing Pip claimants reassessed in future, The Department for Work and Pensions has released a letter that Stephen Timms has sent to MPs about the concessions on the welfare bill. It contains a Q&A, and the text of the amendments relating to Pip. The Q&A covers what will happen to existing Pip claimants if their claims are reassessed. It says:

What has changed? As part of our measures to strengthen the UC and Pip bill, we will bring forward an amendment for Commons committee so that the 4-point minimum only applies to new claims. This means that no existing claimants will be subject to the 4-point requirement, including if they undergo an award review, whether planned or due to a change in circumstances. Those making a new claim after the measure comes into force (not before November 2026) will be subject to the 4-point requirement. Earlier in the Commons Liz Kendall seemed to the opposite, implied that existing claimants would be subject to the four-point rule if they ask for a reassessment after November 2026. (See 4.38pm.) But DWP sources have said Kendall mis-spoke, and that the situation is as set out in the DWP Q&A.

QUICKEST U-TURN IN HISTORY.

Kendall says Pip claimants who get reassessed after November 2026 will be reassessed under new rules, not current ones Vicky Foxcroft, who resigned as a Labour whip over the bill, asked if the Timms review would have the power to review the budget savings being achieved by these cuts. And she asked what would happen if someone requested a reassessment because of worsening health conditions. Would they be reassessed under the old criteria or the new one? Kendall said that the Timms review was not being driven by the need to save money. (That did not fully address the question. Foxcroft wanted to know if it would be able to recommend more spending.) And Kendall said people can request a reassessment. If that happens before November 2026, that will be under the old system. After that, it will be under the new system, she said.

NEW: Liz Kendall has told MPs that if a disabled person currently on PIP requests a reassessment after November 2026 because of worsening health, they will be assessed on the new tougher criteria.

This confirms The Guardian’s report that those with fluctuating conditions will not be protected.

The good, the bad and the messy • Resolution Foundation This week marks an important moment for this Government’s welfare reform plans: as Parliament prepares to vote on major legislation to make cuts to PIP and UC-Health, the consultation on longer-term c...

As Parliament prepares to vote tomorrow on cuts to PIP and UC-Health, the Govt consultation on longer-term changes to the benefits system also closes.

A thread on the good, the bad and the messy included in the consultation...

www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

New post, ***The PIP cuts and public opinion***
-> Exempting current claimants will avoid the worst controversies - but there's a chance of more resistance as the cuts are implemented
inequalities.substack.com/p/the-pip-cu...

Vicky's resignation was thoroughly principled, government should get out of defensive mode and listen.

Minister finally admits that working-age benefits spending is stable, despite months of ‘spiralling’ claims A minister has finally admitted that spending on working-age benefits is stable, and is not spiralling out of control, despite months of claims from his own department and fellow ministers. Sir Ste…

A minister has finally admitted that spending on working-age benefits is stable, and is not spiralling out of control, despite months of claims from his own department and fellow ministers.
#TakingThePIP #WelfareNotWarfare
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/minister-fin...