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Paul Spicker

@paulspicker.bsky.social

Paul is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He mainly writes on poverty, benefits, social justice and social policy. Find his published work at https://observant-paulspicker.wordpress.com/paul-spicker/

461 Followers  |  375 Following  |  47 Posts  |  Joined: 16.09.2024  |  2.544

Latest posts by paulspicker.bsky.social on Bluesky

No, it doesn't. According to the article, the UK Foreign Office told him that he was now on the USA's list of potential sanctions: 'il figure sur la liste des fonctionnaires de la CPI susceptibles d'Γͺtre sanctionnΓ©s par la nouvelle administration amΓ©ricaine."

05.08.2025 18:39 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

In 1951, Harold Wilson and Barbara Castle joined Nye Bevan, resigning in protest against the Labour government's introduction of NHS charges. Whatever happened to them?

16.07.2025 15:54 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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The OECD's "Pensions at a glance" reports % of GDP accounted for by public and private provision.

06.07.2025 16:30 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Unfortunately, you're absolutely right. The government are so fixated on disability that they have forgotten what sickness benefits are supposed to do. I wrote this two years ago:

observant-paulspicker.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/t...

02.07.2025 21:01 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

There are still things that might be done with PIP. Uncouple Mobility Allowance. Revive SDA. Reset extensions. Review assessments. But there's a basic problem: first, you need to understand what PIP is and how it works. The government doesn't.

26.06.2025 09:03 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The public finance argument is not sound. Benefits are 'transfer payments'; when paid for by tax, they are redistributive, and any economic effects (presumptively neutral) are marginal. The decision to cut benefits is at root a decision not to redistribute - down to politics, not economics.

25.06.2025 21:16 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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How copyright threatens academic communication Wikipedia has announced that it will shut for a day, in protest about threatened restrictions in the USA which will enable rights-holders to shut down sites that breach copyright. My website, like …

* Copyright is not designed to protect creative work: it protects rights holders instead.
* IP laws are never just about creativity - they apply to science and data too.
* IP may impede creativity - eg intertexuality, pastiche.
* IP laws governing terms, succession and ownership are in a mess.

23.06.2025 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Nearly 4 million households will also receive an income boost with the main rate of Universal Credit set to increase above inflation every year for the next four years – estimated to be worth Β£725 by 2029/30 for a single household 25 or over. This is around Β£250 higher than an inflation only increases.

The Bill will also rebalance Universal Credit rates by reducing the health element for new UC claims to Β£50 from April 2026, fixing a system which encourages sickness by paying health element recipients more than double the standard amount.

Nearly 4 million households will also receive an income boost with the main rate of Universal Credit set to increase above inflation every year for the next four years – estimated to be worth Β£725 by 2029/30 for a single household 25 or over. This is around Β£250 higher than an inflation only increases. The Bill will also rebalance Universal Credit rates by reducing the health element for new UC claims to Β£50 from April 2026, fixing a system which encourages sickness by paying health element recipients more than double the standard amount.

I’ve been making my way through the Welfare Reform Bill and this paragraph on the gov.uk website is genuinely disgusting.

Receiving a decent disability benefits rate β€œencourages sickness”, does it? Funny, I thought it just enabled severely ill and disabled people to eat.

20.06.2025 10:17 β€” πŸ‘ 702    πŸ” 332    πŸ’¬ 47    πŸ“Œ 57
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Nigel Farage backs Ukip candidate in sausage roll bribery row Southampton Itchen candidate told to report to police accused of β€˜treating’ after savouries were provided at event attended by snooker star Jimmy White

NIgel Farage has said he will buy everyone in one pub a drink if Reform wins the by-election: www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1488379... Treating voters is against electoral law on corrupt practice - as Farage must know, following a similar case www.theguardian.com/politics/201....

05.06.2025 09:40 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The key benefit for people with disabilities, PIP, is not means-tested; it doesn't 'only' go to people on low incomes. Together, the cut to WFP and the proposed cuts to PIP represent an attack on the core principle of universality. Consider that health and education are also universal services.

06.05.2025 17:01 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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A "large chunk" of the cut also fell on pensioners with modest incomes, and another 'large chunk" on those with low incomes. The distribution of pensioners' sources of income can be found at www.gov.uk/government/s....

06.05.2025 16:40 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

They didn't target the cut on rich pensioners. They took it from the basic pension. Benefits have to be judged, not by their title, but by how they add to final income; the cut reduced final annual income for every recipient of the state pension.

06.05.2025 13:53 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Disability and Social Security Myth-Buster Welfare spending is not out of control It is lower than a decade ago and not set to rise within the next five years. What is true is that disability benefits as a share of overall welfare spending …

dpacni.com/2025/05/03/d...

Their key points:

* Welfare spending is not out of control
* The tests are not easy
* It's not about fraud
* There's no disincentive to work
* Cutting benefits won't fix labour shortages
* Cuts won't help the economy

04.05.2025 09:26 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
What is the welfare state for?

What is the welfare state for?

I've received the first copies of "What is the welfare state for?": details at bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/what-i...

'Concise and superbly written" (Daniel BΓ©land)

"A brilliant critical contribution and powerful overview about how we got here and what is at stake" (Camilo PΓ©rez-Bustillo)

29.04.2025 12:21 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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On the incentive to be disabled - Transforming Society Paul Spicker, author of 'What Is the Welfare State For?', highlights how β€˜incentives’ are misused to shift blame onto individuals and justify benefit cuts, rather than tackling systemic issues.

My new blog entry for Policy Press's "Transforming Society": www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/04/11/o...

11.04.2025 11:08 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

From the DWP's Impact Assessment: "It is the Government’s judgement that the package of reforms will increase
employment by addressing structural disincentives ...
We have therefore not included potential impacts of increased employment in the poverty, equalities or cost analysis."

26.03.2025 17:21 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

What Alf Morris actually said was that his aim was β€œimproving the financial status, and therefore the dignity, of every one of our severely disabled fellow citizens”. There were other extra costs benefits.The forerunners of PIP (AA and MA) were about something else: low lifetime incomes.

23.03.2025 19:50 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

PIP is misunderstood. The benefits it was built on – AA, MA and then DLA - were intended to raise persistently low lifetime income. That is why those benefits were assessed on the basis of the severity of the disability, not on costs, and why they are not work-related or means-tested.

23.03.2025 19:44 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Exception: Invalidity Benefit, an enhanced long-term sickness benefit, was introduced in 1971. The attacks on it date from the 1990s, when the replacement Incapacity Benefit was supposed to limit claims but actually led to more.

20.03.2025 21:14 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

If participation in the labour market is falling, why should we assume that the problem is with benefits?

Where are the apprenticeships?
What about vocational education?
Where's the light work?
Where's the therapeutic work?
How come other countries manage contracts with employers, and we can't?

17.03.2025 09:14 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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What is the government doing to disability benefits? The government’s idea of β€˜saving’ money on disability benefits are being justified by several fairly basic misunderstandings about what the benefits do. PIP, in particular, is not…

PIP is not what the government seems to think it is.

It's not an 'out of work' benefit.

It's not a disincentive to work.

It's not an 'extra costs' benefit.

What PIP actually does is to offer a supplement to income, to counter long-term disadvantage.

tinyurl.com/y8r9kesx

12.03.2025 10:03 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Paying fair: Could universal life insurance work? Is it time to think about a UK national life insurance scheme?

There's a fascinating original proposal in The Actuary for universal life insurance: www.theactuary.com/2025/03/07/p...

08.03.2025 21:15 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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As Ben's chart shows, overal welfare spending on non-pensioner households has grown slightly as a share of GDP - but not by much.

06.03.2025 10:10 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 17    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 4

I constantly hear/see journalists, commentators & interviewers asserting how easy it is to get incapacity & disability benefits despite clearly having no real understanding of how the process actually works or having spoken to someone who's been through it. Completely distorts public understanding

06.03.2025 08:59 β€” πŸ‘ 262    πŸ” 102    πŸ’¬ 20    πŸ“Œ 4

Debatable. Everyone in the UK receives, whether they use the NHS or not, a value equivalent to health care insurance, which nowhere features in the accounts.

03.03.2025 10:31 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Solidarity is much misunderstood. The main use of the idea in Europe is not about sentiments or attitudes; it's about what people do for each other. An article on solidarity and socialism: observant-paulspicker.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

11.02.2025 17:17 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

A genuine question. How is it that overflying the city is substantially forbidden in Paris, but permitted in London?

30.01.2025 18:14 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Very interesting, if frustrating - such resistance (or at least indifference) to a policy shift that could at least open up housing options where there are none.

28.01.2025 12:15 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Concepts of need in housing allocation. Policies for the allocation of council housing are subject to considerable local variation. Despite the differences, the schemes which housing departments...

Single people, usually more than half the housing list, are disadvantaged because they're assumed only to 'need' small properties - few providers have single sharer schemes. More at observant-paulspicker.wordpress.com/open-access/

28.01.2025 10:45 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

This was my first real job. Basic fact: lettings depend on what's there. So, families needing 2 bedrooms get housed faster than those needing 4. Difficult-to-let houses become vacant more often, and are refused more: 100 bad options may yield 80 offers per year when 1000 good only yield 40.

28.01.2025 10:39 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

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