Tom Pollard
@PollardTom
Head of Social Policy @NEF | Previously at Mind & DWP | Particular focus on mental health, poverty & social security | NHS Mental Health Social Worker
🚨New @NEF research out today on benefits conditionality: 🫵strict & prescriptive conditionality is pushing people into poor quality work or away from support altogether 📋the public is open to a more flexible & supportive approach that prioritises engagement Find out more👇🧵
"We don’t cancel weddings months out because there’s a chance of drizzle, and we shouldn’t restructure fiscal policy purely on the basis of a single number we know to be, at very best, an informed guess" Really helpful contribution from @AndyMacNaeMP newstatesman.com/politics/econo…
Great @NewStatesman piece by @NEF's @holliewright_ The "exodus" of the wealthy is being overblown & where departures are occurring, it's "more about 'perceptions of declining opportunity & social cohesion' than any particular fiscal measure" newstatesman.com/politics/2025/…
Why shouldn't someone assessed as too unwell to work & facing significant extra costs due to disabilities & poor health receive support at least around the rate of a minimum wage salary? I spoke to @iancollinsuk on @TalkTV earlier about (misleading) reports today on this subject
OBR's new Fiscal Risks and Sustainability Report out today: obr.uk/frs/fiscal-ris… -- what's the verdict on climate impacts on UK debt? 1/6
Just to clarify on this - I'm criticising the government claim, not the journalists reporting it. Have seen some negative comments aimed at @JournoJess_ & @PippaCrerar that I don't condone. The government has made it very difficult to disentangle the real impact of the Bill
This is nonsense. The impact assessment starts from an imaginary baseline incorporating reforms planned but never implemented by the previous government In the real world, the cuts remaining in the Bill will push around 50,000 disabled people into poverty theguardian.com/society/2025/j…
Actually around 50,000 people will be pulled into poverty by remaining cuts in Bill – this now our best estimate based on Govt’s impact assessments. @jrf_uk previously showed how DWP sleight of hand underplayed true poverty impact – same applies to this latest publication. 🧵1/3
Welfare bill u-turn in face of mounting Labour rebellion over disability benefits cuts means that 50,000 people will now be lifted out of poverty, updated impact assessment finds. Initial version of bill would have pushed additional 250,000 into poverty. Full story 👇🏼…
I've been working with a brilliant team at Camden Council, testing & learning how best to reach out to residents to foster voluntary engagement with employment support If you want to find out more, sign up for this online event on 22 July at 9.30am eventbrite.co.uk/e/camden-emplo…
This is nonsense. The impact assessment starts from an imaginary baseline incorporating reforms planned but never implemented by the previous government In the real world, the cuts remaining in the Bill will push around 50,000 disabled people into poverty theguardian.com/society/2025/j…
"returns from well-targeted public spending – on infrastructure, childcare, health, skills – are often far higher than our anaemic assumptions allow... A politics always talking down the impact of spending ends up justifying stagnation" @NEF's @_maxmosley theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
“Trying to build new social homes while Right to Buy is in place is like trying to fill up a leaky bucket – you’ll lose homes as quickly as you can create them” @NEF's @holliewright_ spoke to @BigIssue for this piece bigissue.com/news/housing/l…
“What’s going on in the benefits system is symptomatic of an ill society where there is poor health, poor public services & a lot of poverty” I argued to @Smyth_Chris for this piece that tackling underlying causes is the only path to sustainable savings thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…
The responsibility for any damage to the government's economic credibility lies with those who tried to impose rushed & crude benefit cuts to hit a savings target, not those who rightly stood up to challenge changes that would have pushed even more disabled people into poverty
Proud that @NEF is a signatory to this, alongside 85 other charities These cuts - reverse-engineered to hit a Treasury-imposed savings target - will push even more disabled people into financial insecurity, exacerbating the very issues that have led to the rise need for support
The Prime Minister is facing the largest revolt of his career as a welfare reform deal with Labour MPs may not be enough to get the bill passed in a Commons vote later. It comes as around 80 disability and human rights groups are calling on MPs to vote against it.…
🚨📹 Some thoughts on the disability benefit cuts vote tomorrow We should be deciding who’s eligible for support based on need, not because of short-term GDP fluctuations 👇