Looking forward to speaking MALG in mid-May. Do join us - London Transport museum is a great venue.

Huge congratulations to Mishal Husain on receiving the VLV Award for Best Contribution to Audio 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 BBC Radio 4 Today has changed dramatically during her time. Before she started, it was rare for the agenda-setting 8.10am interview to be done by a woman.

I had the joy of taking him out to lunch to say Thank You for contributing to the work of The Centre for Social Justice where he literally dined out on anecdote after anecdote. Very memorable and generous man.

Important this from James Tapper.
The Work and Health Programme (WHP) has helped nearly 4k disabled people a month since 2020, with almost half getting jobs.
Its closure was inevitable after 7 years, but the failure to have any kind of replacement for it was not...
1/3

High rents and living costs mean that financial support for people on lower earning and in work is now normalised.

Either living costs come down or you pay for it by taxing those profiting from higher costs (e.g. Energy cos, 2+ homeowners, ...)

mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

I can't think of a better way to wait for Match of the Day than listening to Nessun Dorma and a bunch of other bangers on #bbc2 now. Well played BBC.

Great to hear on BBC Money Box that the case I spoke on for Policy in Practice - the North West Skinny Dip - has been resolved. Charity donations won't count as income in this case, hopefully setting a precedent for others! Well done Paul Lewis and team!

Blog on Rishi Sunak speech on sickness + benefits

➤ sick notes a minor issue
➤ WCA/PIP reforms unclear
➤ SSP must be more generous
➤ more conditionality: can cost more than it saves
➤ employment support welcome
➤ but 'any job' isn't the way fwd

policyinpractice.co.uk/disability-ben…

.Deven Ghelani attended the The Centre for Social Justice event this morning to hear about UK Prime Minister the Prime Minister's proposed reforms of the #disability #benefits system. Read our immediate thoughts in this blog by Jack Rowlands

policyinpractice.co.uk/disability-ben…

PM was asked about smartphone use this morning. I assumed BS stats as it was so unbelievable, but the data is from Ofcom and it's nuts.

Smartphone use for children needs to be supervised by parents, highlighting how drivers are often outside of Whitehall's reach.

Hugely important day The Centre for Social Justice - backstreets and corridors of power coming together. Great to hear Rishi Sunak drive forwards new ideas to treat people as potential and not problems; which many of our charities have asked for

The Prime Minister’s welfare reform speech earlier today announced the acceleration of the Managed Migration of legacy ESA/ESA & HB cases to #UniversalCredit . All migration notices will now be sent by the end of December 2025. We will work with stakeholders on the detailed plans.

Thank you Patrick Butler Matthew Pearce for today's piece in the The Guardian

The story focuses on our estimates that half a million unpaid carers in the UK are not claiming £4,200 a year.

Read the full story here: theguardian.com/society/2024/a…