Joe Shalam
@JoeShalam
Director, Policy @csjthinktank | former special adviser @dwpgovuk
Credit to @LeicesterLiz & the DWP team for grasping the welfare nettle🎋 The Right to Try—letting inactive claimants try work without threat of assessment—was recommended by the CSJ in 2023✅ But now is the time to be even bolder with reform. More👇
That an *English Literature graduate* of Bedfordshire Uni required *an interpreter* should trigger an immediate revocation of Bedfordshire's right to grant visas - and a wider investigation into its degree standards. It won't though, because we're no longer a serious country.
I recognise that branding… 👀
There is so many good people on this platform. Honestly mean that. I just glimpsed over my DM’s are there is hundreds of lovely messages. I know I try and spread as much love as I can. But means the world to me when I get a bit of love back. We keep on going day in day out.…
Spot what is missing from this article on soaring rent costs… bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
Imagine a world where half as much attention was given to homeless Brits as there is for accommodating illegal migrants. This month, hundreds of veterans will sleep rough on England's streets. That is not OK. Today @csjthinktank launches a new plan, redirecting £££ earmarked…
📺WATCH: Our new report, No Place Like Home, explains why Housing First works — and offers a plan to take 5,571 rough sleepers off the streets by 2029. But it's also drawn from stories like Sophie, Jamie & Lisa's, whose lives have changed through Housing First♥️ More👇
Today I learned that in 1944, the UK had a working population of 24m against a total of 48m, and today has a working population of 28m against a total of 69m. In the 80 intervening years, worker productivity growth has exceeded 2% per year, on average, for a total of over 5x.…
Afghan migrants have brought as many as 22 "family members" to the UK after a judge declared "family" had no meaning and no legal or blood relationship was required. Just come over and bring the whole village. Judicial activism is absolutely out of control.
Meanwhile in Australia…
Parliamentary Library policy brief on trends in working-age welfare receipt: 'In June 2023, close to 12% of the population aged 15–64 received income support payments—the lowest level in more than 45 years. June 2024 was only slightly higher at around 13%'
👂We brought small charities from across the North East to our Lost Boys #BigListen 🔑Frontline insights are key to addressing the growing crisis facing young men without positive male role models. 🗣️Thank you to the M10 boys for sharing how mentoring has transformed their…
We should do what France and many other countries do and tax households not individuals (IMO, Mrs Thatcher's biggest mistake was moving away from this). So if you have children you would have to earn more before you move into higher tax thresholds. Make babies tax deductible!
Tomorrow, @Conservatives are forcing a vote on the two-child benefit cap. Why? Because families on benefits should make the same responsible decisions about having children as everyone else. 🧵👇
On a related note, I hold a weak belief that politicians have used low skilled migration that's lifetime fiscally negative but short run neutral as a form of disguised borrowing that's out of the OBR forecast window and not on the balance sheet. The obligations - pensions, NHS…
Remember: if a migrant is a fiscal drain for five years then receives citizenship, that's still a fiscal cost of migration, and it should be weighed accordingly in policy analysis
It's been like this for 2 solid years now. People walking brazenly into stores, picking up what they want and leaving with a care in the world. Everyone is demoralised. Even customers advise staff not to risk their lives with confrontation. This is where we are at.
Two thieves walked out of a Waitrose store in London with handfuls of steak and salmon. Via (Daily Mail)
📺WATCH: Is it time to overhaul Pupil Premium? New CSJ analysis out this Sunday paints a startling picture of Pupil Premium💥 Watch our star-studded panel discuss live on Monday BELOW👇
I’m not really into crystal balls, and there’s every chance it turns out to be an aberration and perhaps politics as normal returns. But right now I think lots of people risk being behind the curve on how dramatically our politics is and has already changed.
10 council by-elections last night. Labour and the Conservatives won NONE OF THEM. Future historians will possibly put 2025 as the mid point of both major parties collapsing - something which starts with the European elections of 2019.
Joe Shalam, Policy Director at the Centre for Social Justice, highlights reports showing that some unemployed benefit claimants are now receiving more than many full-time workers—warning this could undermine work incentives and calling for a review of the system.
More footage has been released from the Manchester Airport incident. Remember the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper and the Rochdale Labour MP, Paul Waugh, tried to paint the thugs who did this as the next George Floyd. Unforgivable.
🚨NEW: Sickness benefit claims have hit 3k per day, with costs soaring and the potential of millions wasted. New CSJ analysis finds inactive claimants could still receive £1,000s more than post-tax earnings even after Govt reform. We're calling for a new approach to welfare👇