Will Phillips

Some great (if utterly depressing) charts and commentary from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com in @data.ft.com today. First one is a zinger… #studentloans

Ireland’s basic income for the arts scheme becomes permanent When piloted, initiative that provided €325 a week to eligible artists recouped more than its net cost, study shows

Gee, Universal Basic Income recoups more than it costs AND the recipients are happier and healthier.

Hmmm. Where have I seen those results before? Oh yes, in every other goddam pilot study of UBI for more than a decade. Ireland joins Finland in at least making a start.

This is absolutely shocking. Something has to be done about this appalling situation in which so many now find themselves. The government needs to act

Even after the mansion tax is applied, the owner of a £5m home in Westminster will pay proportionately less in property tax than the owner of a £210k Band B property in Sunderland.

Chart showing the package of reforms and potential impact on child poverty rates.

With policy ambition, this could be a parliament of rapidly falling child poverty.

Significant policy change could lower child poverty numbers below 4 million again.

The Opportunity Index – What does it tell us about access to HE? - The Sutton Trust Looking at access to university using our latest region-level and constituency-level data.

💬 "A FSM pupil in one part of the country (Stratford and Bow) is over 10 times more likely to attend university than someone in another (Bristol North West), by no fault of their own. How is this fair?"

‪@ericaholtwhite.bsky.social‬ unpacks our new research ✍️

🧵 NEW: The erosion of the graduate premium

The minimum wage is now £25k on a 40-hour week. From next year, £25k is also the threshold for repaying new student loans

There are many good reasons to go to uni - but does it still pay in the financial sense?

1/7

🔗 www.thetimes.com/article/0842...

Search engines exist. Calendars and reminders are already on your phone and email client. No one needs to use immense amounts of energy and water and stolen IP to make a worse version!

Chart showing real full-time annual earnings for someone on the minimum wage and different categories of graduates: UK

Graduate salaries have stagnated while the minimum wage has risen, leading to convergence between the two.

Two decades ago, the median graduate in a ‘graduate job’ had a salary 2.5 times that of a minimum wage worker, by 2023, the typical graduate earned 1.6 times a minimum wage worker.

A remarkable stat: Heidi Alexander’s appointment as Transport Secretary means the cabinet is now 100% state-educated for the first time in history.

Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1,000 a month. A year later, nearly half of participants said they had housing. Participants in Denver's basic-income program reported having more-secure housing, though results were similar in the trial and control groups.

Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1k/month. A year later, nearly half had housing.

They also had fewer ER visits, nights spent in a hospital, and jail stays.

The report estimates that this reduction in public service use SAVED the city $589k.
www.businessinsider.com/denver-basic...

London above Manchester in the year of our lord 2025.

Screengrab from Big Issue reading: New Economics Foundation “The failures of the last government have made the cost of living crisis more painful than it needed to be. Failing to guarantee an adequate social security system means low-income households have been hit hardest. Failing to invest in home insulation, wind or solar power has left us vulnerable to soaring energy bills.” To ‘turn the crisis around’, Labour must ensure wages rise and reduce our reliance on costly fossil fuel energy. “The new government must make life affordable for all of us,” Pollard said. “[They can do this] by guaranteeing a minimum level of income that is adequate to afford the essentials, investing in insulation and renewables, and ensuring that public services can help all of us to meet our basic needs.”

The rate of poverty in the UK is currently higher than at any point in the 21st century. @pollardtom.bsky.social spoke to @bigissue.bsky.social

Instead of a 16-64 employment rate of around 75 per cent, as the LFS says, our admin data-based estimates suggest that the rate could now be around 76 per cent.

This potentially makes the Government's aspiration of reaching an 80% employment rate more achievable, although still very stretching.