Chris Birt

Can child poverty be eradicated? Professor Nicola McEwen, Professor Kezia Dugdale, Chris Birt, Shirley-Anne Somerville, Gina Davidson, SNP Annual National Conference. University of Glasgow and Centre for Public Policy.

Going to the SNP Annual National Conference this weekend?

We're hosting a fringe event on Saturday (tomorrow!) at 5pm❗

Can child poverty be eradicated?

🗣️ @profnicolamcewen.bsky.social @kezdugdale.bsky.social @cdbirt.bsky.social, @sa4dunfermline.bsky.social, and @ginadavidson.bsky.social.

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"What's the modern Scotland that we believe in?"
@cdbirt.bsky.social closing our conference.

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us in Edinburgh today.

Looking forward to working together to built support for a better Scotland 🌟

Good to be in the Scotsman today with Peter Kelly @povertyalliance.org on how Scotland Demands Better can be the alternative to the hate we've seen spill out elsewhere.

Full article available in the paper and online:

www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...

Come along tomorrow evening to this public meeting hear from @cdbirt.bsky.social and me about why we are supporting the ‘Scotland Demands Better’ campaign.

A poster for a public event in Edinburgh on Tuesday 9 September between 7 and 8.15 pm. In the Grassmarket Community Project, 86 Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh, EH11 2QA

On 25th October people are taking to the streets of Edinburgh for Scotland Demands Better.

A chance for us to use our voice to demand better from our politicians. A Scotland where everyone can flourish.

Come hear about why tomorrow night with me,
@satwatr.bsky.social and others 👇👇

Ellen and Liz do the Great North Run We are running the Great North Run to raise money for the research and support provided by Breast Cancer Now. We are running in memory of Audrey Birt (El’s mother-in-law and Liz’s friend), Christina M

If you can spare a wee bit my wife and pal Liz are doing the Great North Run raising funds for Breast Cancer Now in memory of my Mum and Christina McKelvie and all the other women taken too young.

Well done Liz and El, ha’way the lasses!

ajbellgreatnorthrun2025.enthuse.com/pf/liz-lloyd...

Careers Do you want to help build a fairer future, free from poverty? Join us and use your skills to make a real difference.

🚨STOP THE BUS🚨

We have a new vacancy in JRF's Scotland Team.

We're looking for a Senior Policy Adviser to join our brilliant team here.

Passionately believe we can deliver a better Scotland free from poverty? Then it could be 🫵

Details 👇🕑 10/8.

www.jrf.org.uk/careers

Funding The Joseph Rowntree Foundation funds and works in partnership with other organisations to unlock the UK from poverty

⏰⏰You may have already seen this but we're looking for a partner to work with us to consider our approach to movement building and grassroots organising in Scotland.

More info in the link below - closing date for applications 16 July.

www.jrf.org.uk/funding

Scotcast - A minimum income for all - BBC Sounds Should billions more be spent to guarantee everyone a minimum income?

A pleasure to join Scotcast earlier to talk about a Minimum Income Guarantee.

Quite the contrast while the UKG were attacking the living standards of disabled people.

We need big ideas at the moment, not rehashed cuts.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Sir Geoff Palmer, Scotland's first black professor, dies aged 85 Sir Geoff moved to the UK from Jamaica as a teenager and became known as both an academic and a human rights advocate.

Sir Geoff Palmer is one of those people that when they pass they leave a massive hole in our society.

He brought such wisdom, passion and drive for justice into Scotland.

A Scottish legend.

Thoughts with his family and friends.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A couple of weeks ago @satwatr.bsky.social and I wrote the piece below for the Scotsman on how politicians in Scotland can meet the moment we're in.

With their permission have popped it on my Medium for all to see.

Have a shifty - see what you think.

medium.com/@cdbirt/we-c...

It's no bad thing that the UKG are looking for ways to re-instate the £300 per year that some pensioners have lost from Winter Fuel Payments.

But how, then, can they defend the £4,500 per year loss ON AVERAGE, through PIP alone, they want to take away from disabled people? 🤨🤨

@cdbirt.bsky.social & I wrote a piece on the urgency to tackle child poverty.
‘We no longer live in a country where a tweak to the status quo will meet people’s expectations. We can no longer accept that the only way for our people to prosper is to make small changes …’

SNP and Labour need to take poverty more seriously – or malign actors will profit There are those seeking to exploiting poverty to drive a wedge between communities

In today’s Scotsman @satwatr.bsky.social and I on why defending the status quo is no longer a serviceable political strategy.

So politicians must take on poverty and deliver what people want. Decent homes, decent pay and services when they need them.

www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...

📢Head on over to Carla's Corner 🛣️for a bit of a deeper dive on the Poverty and Inequality statistics published today.

What we've called "a thundering wake up call" to the Scottish Government and all the parties in the Scottish Parliament in the race to meet the child poverty reduction targets.

Currently hammering refresh on the SG's poverty stats website...

Worth noting, although probably obvious, that the Chancellor's cuts yesterday won't be reflected in these annual stats which cover the period up to April 2024.

Crucial analysis from over on Mordor from my colleague @iainkporter.bsky.social

Welfare cuts actually increase poverty by closer to 400,000 but DWP sleight of hand attempting to mask it.

The Chancellor said today that she would not do anything to put household finances in danger

Yet the government’s own assessment shows their cuts to health related benefits risk pushing 250,000 people into poverty, including 50,000 children 📢

Their assessment also found... 1/3

Confirmation of chunky cuts to SG and NI Executive budgets because of PIP cuts.

Big choices for those Ministers as to whether to copy the cruel choices of UKG.

📢Not just a big week with the Chancellor's statement on Wednesday...

📝Thursday will tell us whether or not the Scottish Government have met the Scottish Parliament's interim Child Poverty Reduction targets.

Signs not great, catch up work needed in the next Parliament.

The lowest income households will be £900 per year worse off than they are today, a 6% fall in their disposable income.

The poorest third are disproportionately affected and could see their overall incomes fall twice as fast compared with the middle and the top.

NEW: Analysis from @jrf-uk.bsky.social ahead of the Chancellor’s spring statement this week shows families worse off by £1400 by 2030.

This would mean missing the PM’s living standards milestone and could be the first government since 1955 to see a fall in living standards across a parliament.

Together we are celebrating Single Parents day 2025

💜 Happy #SingleParentsDay !

📣 Today, we’re joining 16 orgs across the UK & Ireland to launch the #SingleParentCommunity campaign!
Together, we’re amplifying voices, raising awareness of support & building a community for single parents.

💜 Follow, share & get involved!

🔗

Strong Message Here - Britain Isn't Working - BBC Sounds Armando and Helen look at how we talk about those on welfare, and how it's changed.

Have always loved @aiannucci.bsky.social but added a wee bit more after this episode of Strong Message Here.

People spouting mince about things they know nothing about on disability benefits cuts would do well to give it a listen.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

JRF Chief Executive Paul Kissack said: "No truly moral choice would leave disabled people without the very support that is designed to allow them to lead a dignified life, nor would it leave them facing hardship. These would be unprecedented disability benefits cuts. “Ideas like the Right to Try Guarantee help to remove the barriers that prevent people from working but enormous cuts mean the Government risks undermining these positives. Making it harder for people to qualify for support, or cutting their support, puts more pressure on people who are already struggling to cope. "Ministers should boost the basic rate of Universal Credit without taking the extra support from the pockets of disabled people receiving UC health. It should be funded by those with the broadest shoulders. "A government that came to office pledging to end the moral scar of food bank use clearly should not be taking steps that could leave disabled people at greater risk of needing to use one."

Big picture today is Government chose to cut unprecedented £5bn of income from disabled people at highest risk of hardship. This drive for cost savings undermines any positive changes contained in the disability benefits green paper.

Here are some other big problems:🧵1/11

There seems to be some thinking that the cuts announced today to disability benefits would've gone down better if there hadn't have been a trickle of leaks...

THERE ARE £5,000,000,000 WORTH OF CUTS TO PIP

However you announce that IT IS VERY BAD.

#politicalanalysis

Yeah I saw that. As you say, that sentence is doing a lot of heavy lifting!

From SG perspective obviously big choices for them to make facing huge cuts to PIP and SG budget.

But also if health related UC will now share PIP assessment - how will this work in Scotland with Social Security Scotland doing the assessment?

From JRF's CEO,

"No truly moral choice would leave disabled people without the very support that is designed to allow them to lead a dignified life, nor would it leave them facing hardship. These would be unprecedented disability benefits cuts."

👇

t.co/MIPKplkzMA

This is just speculation at this stage.

But a £5,000 cut potentially impacting on the most severely disabled?

Come on! If you’re a politician who can influence this, use your voice.

Let’s stop using disabled people in a game of chicken.

End the speculation, bin the cuts.