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ICYMI: Last week's excellent "Basic Income: Backbone for The Arts" is available to watch again on our YouTube Channel - youtu.be/JJWlpJHkXVA
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Basic Income UK retweeted
Joe, £36bn in projected savings isn't £36bn of improved lives. How many lose support? How many find secure work? What happens to poverty, health and NHS costs? Without those answers, you've announced a cuts target, not demonstrated genuine reform (short🧵)
£36 billion a year in welfare savings.
Kemi Badenoch has unveiled the @Conservatives Welfare That Works plan. A plan to cut the ballooning benefits bill, reform welfare and help more people into work.
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Basic Income UK retweeted
Suzanne, welfare includes pensions and isn't just a cost.
What's the return on investment from preventing poverty, ill health and homelessness?
Counting expenditure while ignoring wider economic and social benefits tells us little about sustainability.
What's the return on investment from preventing poverty, ill health and homelessness?
Counting expenditure while ignoring wider economic and social benefits tells us little about sustainability.
We cannot survive as a nation if this continues.
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Basic Income UK retweeted
Canada is looking to provide a big non-refundable tax credit to certain kinds of artists, and I don't think that's the right way to help artists. We already have the evidence for the right way, and it's monthly cash as Ireland tested with great success.
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Basic Income UK retweeted
Ryan, PIP assesses functional impairment, not diagnosis alone. Someone with ADHD or anxiety doesn't automatically qualify. What evidence shows removing support from 'mild-to-moderate' cases improves health or employment? Cutting eligibility isn't treating illness.
The new Welfare That Works plan from the @Conservatives, specifically @KemiBadenoch and @Helen_Whately, rightly outlines restricting Child Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payments for mental health and neurodiversity claims to those with severe cases.
Unconditional cash transfers is not necessary or helpful for children and adults with mild-to-moderate mental health and neurodiversity claims.
They could go further. All state benefits - including the health element of UC and Statutory Sick Pay - should only be claimable for severe rather than mild-to-moderate mental health and neurodiversity problems.
thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…
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Basic Income UK retweeted
People aren't 'blank cheques' or entries on a spreadsheet. They're workers, disabled people, carers and families. Means-testing PIP would undermine support based on disability-related needs. Stop treating people as liabilities and calling it economic responsibility.
Our response to the Conservative Party's welfare plans
Responding to the Conservatives’ welfare reform plans, John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:
“Taxpayers cannot keep writing blank cheques for a welfare system that sees 54 constituencies racking re than £1 million a day.
“The Conservatives are right to focus on tightening eligibility, restoring the principle of contribution and restricting benefits for foreign nationals. But they should go further by means-testing PIP to ensure support reaches those who need it most and deliver even greater savings.
“With £36 billion in savings being promised, taxpayers will want to see these plans deliver genuine long-term reductions in the welfare bill, and not become another set of empty promises.”
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An MP using gossip about neighbours and distant cousins to justify cutting benefits? That's shameful. No evidence, just suspicion dressed up as policy. People claim support because they need it, not because you know someone who 'probably shouldn't'. Do better.
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UBI offers a way out of this toxic 'deserving versus undeserving' divide. Everyone receives the same unconditional income floor, with higher earners paying more back through tax. No means tests, no stigma, no neighbours policing neighbours. Security as a right, not a reward.
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You can block, but you can't hide Peter.
An MP using gossip about neighbours and distant cousins to justify cutting benefits? That's shameful. No evidence, just suspicion dressed up as policy. People claim support because they need it, not because you know someone who 'probably shouldn't'. Do better.
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Ryan, government modelling linked the two-child limit to 300,000 additional children in poverty in 2025–26.
Why restore it?
Temporary exemptions won't protect low-paid working families or those facing lasting hardship.
Where's the evidence this improves children's lives?
Why restore it?
Temporary exemptions won't protect low-paid working families or those facing lasting hardship.
Where's the evidence this improves children's lives?
The two-child limit for benefits should be restored.
But households that experience new unemployment or a significant drop income should be exempt from the two-child limit for a limited number of months, which could vary depending on the number of years they have worked.
This would be a contributory-based compromise.
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
@Helen_Whately @patmcfaddenmp @stephenctimms @NeilDotObrien @RobertJenrick @griffitha @JohnHealey_MP @SteveDarlingMP @EdwardJDavey @libdemdaisy @JoePJRobertson @amanda_spielman @Debbie_abrahams
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The IFS found only a modest employment response to the two-child limit.
Cutting family income doesn't create affordable childcare, suitable jobs or better health.
And why should children's security depend on how many years their parents have worked?
The IFS found only a modest employment response to the two-child limit.
Cutting family income doesn't create affordable childcare, suitable jobs or better health.
And why should children's security depend on how many years their parents have worked?
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UBI provides an income floor; UBS supports childcare, housing, healthcare and a Right to Food; a Green New Deal creates decent jobs with fair wages.
Add adequate child-related support.
The objective should be fewer children in poverty, not fewer families receiving help.
UBI provides an income floor; UBS supports childcare, housing, healthcare and a Right to Food; a Green New Deal creates decent jobs with fair wages.
Add adequate child-related support.
The objective should be fewer children in poverty, not fewer families receiving help.
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Basic Income UK retweeted
An MP using gossip about neighbours and distant cousins to justify cutting benefits? That's shameful. No evidence, just suspicion dressed up as policy. People claim support because they need it, not because you know someone who 'probably shouldn't'. Do better.
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Basic Income UK retweeted
Milburn is right: taking a job shouldn't feel like a financial gamble. Letting young people keep more of their earnings is welcome. But why stop there? UBI would give everyone a secure income floor, with wages on top. Make work pay without making poverty the penalty.
EXCL: Alan Milburn will demand a new 'work allowance' for young people when he publishes his major report into 'Neets' crisis next week.
Set at a value of 16 hours a week at the minimum wage, it would stop their Universal Credit being reduced from the first pound they earn.
He says the current system "makes trying a job feel like a gamble many young people can’t afford to take".
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…
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Basic Income UK retweeted
🫘 Beans are taking centre stage at Supper Clubs across the UK!
Chef @MelissaHemsley gets the inside story on our #BangInSomeBeans podcast featuring @netflix Chef's Table star Asma Khan and @MasterChefUK winner Irini Tzortzoglou.
🎧 Listen in full: open.spotify.com/episode/2zZ0AX…
Chef @MelissaHemsley gets the inside story on our #BangInSomeBeans podcast featuring @netflix Chef's Table star Asma Khan and @MasterChefUK winner Irini Tzortzoglou.
🎧 Listen in full: open.spotify.com/episode/2zZ0AX…
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Basic Income UK retweeted
#SaveSocialSecurity #AbolishBillionaires #EndCitizensUnited #UBI #UniversalBasicIncome #RaiseTheWage #TrueLiveableWage #Fight4AUnion #TaxTheRich #WealthTax #UBI4ALL #MakeAIBenefitAll #HealthcareForAll #UniversalHealthCare #HousingForAll #EndPoverty #FairEconomy #ClimateJustice
Milburn is right: taking a job shouldn't feel like a financial gamble. Letting young people keep more of their earnings is welcome. But why stop there? UBI would give everyone a secure income floor, with wages on top. Make work pay without making poverty the penalty.
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The ASI compares welfare spending with just two taxes, ignores other revenues and declares the system broken. Where's the analysis of poverty, health costs and social returns? And what evidence shows £36bn in cuts would improve lives? That's selective accounting, not reform 🧵
Responding to the Conservative's recently announced Welfare That Works plan, Silvia Andreoletti @silviandreoletti, Head of Communications at the ASI, said:
"The Conservatives’ proposal to cut welfare spending by £36bn is exactly what the country needs. 3 out of 4 constituencies end more on welfare than they receive in income tax and NI: the system is broken and needs nothing short of drastic reform.
The plan is an ambitious blueprint for getting the country’s spending back on track, making room to reduce the National Debt, and deliver a fairer future for taxpayers and the next generation.
It’s especially good to see the Conservatives adopt the ASI’s policy of ending VAT relief on non-adapted Motability cars. This would save the Government over £1 billion without compromising the freedom of Motability users: every Motability customer would still have a car, but they would no longer be given a brand-new car – just like the three-quarters of British motorists who pay for a car with their own money."
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£36bn in cuts celebrated as a victory, while disabled people face losing support or paying more for essential mobility.
Where's the assessment of hardship, health and independence?
People aren't liabilities on a spreadsheet.
Cutting support isn't fixing the system.
£36bn in cuts celebrated as a victory, while disabled people face losing support or paying more for essential mobility.
Where's the assessment of hardship, health and independence?
People aren't liabilities on a spreadsheet.
Cutting support isn't fixing the system.
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Real reform tackles the causes of insecurity.
UBI provides an income floor; UBI+ retains additional disability support; UBS reduces essential costs; a Green New Deal creates decent jobs.
Measure net costs, social returns and outcomes.
Prevention beats punishment.
Real reform tackles the causes of insecurity.
UBI provides an income floor; UBI+ retains additional disability support; UBS reduces essential costs; a Green New Deal creates decent jobs.
Measure net costs, social returns and outcomes.
Prevention beats punishment.
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Helen, young people need jobs, not another lecture about welfare. A work allowance rewards earnings; UBI provides security between jobs and the freedom to refuse exploitation. Add decent wages and strong unions. Opportunity comes from investment, not desperation.
This government wants hundreds of thousands of young people to start their working lives on welfare – just for showing up.
Labour just doesn’t get it.
Young people want to work. Government needs to get off the necks of businesses so they can afford to hire young people again.
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Andrew, you frame taxpayers and claimants as opposing groups. They're not. Millions receiving benefits work, while others are disabled, ill or caring for someone. You promise £36bn in cuts but say little about the consequences. Cutting support isn't the same as fixing poverty 🧵
Labour won’t reform welfare. They’ll just make you pay for it.
John Healey has announced that he is abandoning Labour’s small crackdown on welfare fraud…
It would have meant simple open banking checks to make sure claimants are eligible. Not much different from the checks faced by anyone applying for a mortgage, renting a property or taking out a credit card.
Healey’s decision is estimated to cost £10 million next year because of an increase in fraudulent claims.
At the same time, Labour are giving HMRC new powers to raid the bank accounts of hard-working people, potentially emptying them, leaving nothing to pay the bills.
They’ll even have the power to take money directly from a couple’s joint bank account to pay off just one partner’s debts.
If taxpayers can have money taken from them under the threat of being thrown into one of our overcrowded prisons, why on earth shouldn’t welfare claimants face the same?
Of course, we should put £10 million into context. We are estimated to spend almost FIFTEEN THOUSAND TIMES that amount on debt interest alone.
That’s not the point. It is two-tier treatment of taxpayers and welfare claimants. And it exposes just how utterly unserious Labour are about meaningful welfare reform.
When Keir Starmer attempted some small reforms – which were not enough – Labour MPs staged a full-blown rebellion, determined to keep handing over more and more taxpayers’ cash to people who can and should work.
The day after the Budget, Chancellor Healey went on the BBC to claim that the benefits bill would be cut before the next election, only for his army of Treasury and Labour Party spinners to be forced to clarify that it wouldn’t happen.
Welfare reform is more urgent than ever. Working-age welfare spending is set to increase by £57.7 billion under Labour’s plan.
That’s more than £2,500 for every working-age household.
As Chancellor, I would make very different choices.
We Conservatives will cut the welfare bill by £36 billion. We’ll reintroduce the two-child benefit cap, reform Housing Benefit, the Disability Living Allowance and sickness and disability benefits, and more.
Welfare is a safety net, not an entitlement. It is paid for by hard-working taxpayers.
If you can work, you should work.
Every time Labour ducks welfare reform, hard-working taxpayers are left picking up the tab.
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2/3 Where's the plan to tackle ill health, NHS waiting lists, low wages, unaffordable housing & insecure work?
Reintroducing the 2-child limit & restricting disability support won't solve those problems.
What happens to families who lose income?
That's the missing calculation.
Reintroducing the 2-child limit & restricting disability support won't solve those problems.
What happens to families who lose income?
That's the missing calculation.
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