🚨 The rumoured cuts to disability and long-term sickness benefits are unprecedented.

If the total £6 billion cuts go ahead it would be the *biggest* cut to disability benefits since at least 2010 when the OBR was created. 🧵[1/5] If the reports of a £5 billion cut to PIP are true:

✂️ It would be a cut x3 bigger than the cut that led then Work and Pension Secretary Iain Duncan Smith to resign in 2016. [2/5]

Today's #Budget2024 won’t be enough to fix the foundations for millions who struggle winter after winter in devastating hardship.

The people who needed to feel the most change are those living in and at risk of hardship. 🔽 1/4 Limiting the devastating impact of deductions is a good step.

There was also welcome investment in social homes, help for carers to work and care, and a rise in the minimum wage.

But... 2/4

With one week until the General Election, over 200 orgs have come together to ask Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to put hardship at the top of their to-do list

7 million low income households were going without essentials like food and adequate clothing #OurEssentials 🧵 (1/5) 📝 Organisations who have added their signature include food banks, economic support groups and advice forums.

Health and wellbeing, housing, homelessness and community services, third sector, disability and women's orgs, carers, and environmental groups have also signed. (2/5)

Today’s @ONS figures show that the rate of inflation is coming down- But the damage of the last few years remains an open wound that continues to go mostly untreated.

(1/5) 🧵

https://twitter.com/ONS/status/1793159929303375963

The Prime Minister says the plan is working and the Chancellor says the economy is returning to full health.

❌ However, inflation is not a measure of poverty and celebrating this figure ignores the gravity of the broader context of poverty in the UK.

(2/5)

🗣️ Private landlords are capitalising on the housing crisis leaving taxpayers and local councils to foot the bill for poor quality properties.

📒 Our latest report sets out how socialisation can – in targeted ways – play an important role in solving the housing crisis 🔽

(1/10) 🏘️ Socialisation is a process where private homes are bought up by councils, housing associations and community groups to use as affordable social homes.

(2/10)

In the next few days, films inspired by A Christmas Carol will be hard to avoid.

Yet looking back on 2023, it’s the opening line of Dickens' novel, A Tale of Two Cities (‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’), that feels more relevant. 🧵🔽 (1/20) 📊Here, we share some of the emotional highs and lows of the past twelve months.

A year where JRF embarked on an ambitious new long-term strategy to address the dysfunctions of the present while supporting those nurturing more hopeful futures.



(2/20)jrf.org.uk/the-moment-we-…

Destitution is when people cannot afford to meet their most basic physical needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed.

Our new report reveals a shameful rise in the number of people experiencing destitution in the UK.

Here are the key findings 🧵

#DontIgnoreDestitution Around 3.8 million people experienced destitution in 2022, a 61% rise since 2019. ⬆️

This included around 1 million children, an 88% rise since 2019. ⬆️

The no. of people experiencing destitution has more than doubled in the last 5 years, while the no. of children has tripled.

🧵The social security system should support us all when we face challenging times, but right now it’s not covering the essentials and pushing some people into even deeper hardship.

What’s gone wrong and what can be done about it?
#OurEssentials Firstly, #UniversalCredit isn’t set according to any objective assessment of the price of essentials such as food and utilities. From April it will only be £85 a week for a single adult.

We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but right now 90% of households receiving #UniversalCredit are going without essentials like food, utilities and vital household goods. We can’t always deal with what life throws at us on our own, so we need to have a system that supports us all to afford the essentials while we recover from setbacks.

💬 Welcome to JRF’s #AskAnAnalyst Q&A session 💬

Our analysts will be answering your questions on our #UKPoverty2023 report.

You can read the report in full, here: jrf.org.uk/report/uk-pove… First question received from a webinar attendee last week: "How will the uprating of benefits and increase in the benefit cap levels from April impact poverty rates?" #AskAnAnalyst

🚨 NEW from JRF:

This is a #MiniBudget that has wilfully ignored families struggling through a cost of living emergency and instead targeted its action at the richest.

It leaves those on the lowest incomes out in the cold with no extra help to get them through the winter. 🧵 Families on low incomes can’t wait for the promised benefits of economic growth to trickle down into their pockets.

The energy price cap fixes bills at a level already unaffordable for many and was never going to be enough to solve the problem for those on the lowest incomes.

🚨 NEW JRF analysis of today's Ofgem price cap and new Cornwall Insight forecasts

Energy bills will fast outstrip people’s incomes to the point where paying them becomes fantasy

Thread🧵👇 🔴 The average low-income family will pay 4 and 1/2 times more for energy in 2023/24 than 2021/22

🔴 Single parents will hand over almost 2/3s of their income after housing costs

🔴 Some single adults' energy bills will make up almost 120% of their income after housing costs

🚨 JRF responds to the #SpringStatement

The Chancellor has abandoned many to the threat of destitution, not economic security, @dminnes

🧵👇 ✂️6⃣ "The Chancellor has acted recklessly in pressing ahead with a second real-terms cut to benefits in six months, while prioritising people on middle and higher incomes."

A thread on the power of insight to drive change 🧵👇

Last week, as a result of @BootstrapCook's campaign on rising food prices faced by those on a low income, the @ONS restarted the publication of inflation rates by income bands The power of her intervention was that she’d unearthed a genuinely powerful and original insight, with real implications

We’re thinking hard at JRF about the greater contribution we can make to enhancing insight about poverty
independent.co.uk/life-style/jac…

🚨 Latest JRF energy bills analysis 🚨🧵

❌ New measures won’t protect the poorest families from the new energy price cap

1⃣6⃣ Families on low incomes will spend on average 16% of their incomes after housing costs on energy bills. This compares to 5% for middle-income families 4⃣3⃣ Single adult households on low incomes will spend a shocking 43% on average of their income after housing costs on energy bills

2⃣2⃣ Lone parent families on low incomes will spend 22% on average of their income after housing costs on energy bills

📣JRF responds to today’s announcements on energy costs and the cost of living 🧵

@KatieSchmuecker said:

"The Chancellor has offered cold comfort to families in poverty, who are already rationing what they can spend on essentials such as heating and food... "These families are now expected to find at least half of the eye watering increases in energy bills, when many are already getting into debt to keep their houses warm and food on the table...

JRF's @KatieSchmuecker responds to details of the government's levelling up white paper:

"The Prime Minister has defined levelling up as delivering for the poorest, so this strategy should be assessed against its ability to reduce poverty across the country... ⬇️ "A focus on rising employment, pay and productivity will only succeed if it delivers better jobs and pay for people on the lowest incomes. To make this happen we need to see investment in skills, childcare, local transport and affordable housing... 💷👨‍🍼🚌🏠

💬 Welcome to JRF’s #AskAnAnalyst Q&A session 💬

Our analysts will be answering your questions on the data behind our #UKPoverty2022 report.

You can read the report in full, here: jrf.org.uk/report/uk-pove… First up we have a question from @Thomas_WilsonUK on pensioner poverty 👇 We also received a similar question from Ellie Gaddes from @IndependentAge

https://twitter.com/Thomas_WilsonUK/status/1484446139009142785?s=20

This year’s #UKPoverty2022 report is designed to act as the ultimate reference document for the complete picture of poverty across all its characteristics and impacts.

Here, JRF analysts share the latest data from the areas of the report they have worked on

🧵👇 First up, @J_Elliott94 on housing and poverty 👇🏠

https://twitter.com/J_Elliott94/status/1483727295366012935

OUT NOW: Our #UKPoverty2022 report paints a picture of better prospects for some, but for others poverty is proving deep and persistent.

We must turn back the tide and offer security for the many people experiencing hardship across the UK.

Thread🧵
jrf.org.uk/report/uk-pove… The findings of our latest report paint a stark picture of the state of the nation going into the pandemic, with rising child and pensioner poverty, and very high poverty rates for larger families and single-parent families, as well as Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black families 📈

Urgent action is needed to ease the pain of the cost-of-living crisis.

Our new research shows the large impact of the energy price cap rise on the poorest families.

Thread 🧵👇
jrf.org.uk/press/rising-e… Our new analysis finds that households on low incomes will be spending on average 18% of their income after housing costs on energy bills after April.

For single adult households on low incomes this rises to a shocking 54% 📈