iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

PBE @pbe.co.uk · 07/09/2026

After seven years in post, our CEO, @mattwhittaker.bsky.social, will step down on September 18, 2026. Under Matt's leadership, PBE has grown in both scale and scope to support more social sector organisations, unleash the power of civil society and tackle low wellbeing.

131

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

The Policy Institute @policyatkings.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

NEW: Our latest study – part of a new series called Mistaken Britain – shows public perceptions of crime are at odds with reality The public have an inflated view of the risk of crime, wrongly think many crimes are rising, and hold misperceptions about offenders' ethnicity and nationality ⬇️ 🧵

152

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

The Policy Institute @policyatkings.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

👀 ICYMI 📉 The public wrongly think mobile phone theft, vehicle theft, burglary and murder have all increased or stayed the same since 2010 📖 This finding comes from our latest report which examines misperceptions of crime among the UK public ➡️ www.kcl.ac.uk/news/public-...

001

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Time for one of my favourite (@yougov.co.uk) charts: yougov.com/en-gb/articl... We all prefer the music of our youth, but the 80s have most cross-generational appeal. It's a decade old, so may have shifted as kids with 90s parents have come of age (and as streaming has blurred our sense of time)

Chart showing the proportions of people at all ages from 18-80 choosing different decades as their favourite ones, musically. It shows that people often favour the decade of their 'youth', but that the 1960s and 1980s have the broadest appeal across different ages. The research is from 2017, so the picture may look different today.

040

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

PBE @pbe.co.uk · 21/07/2026

Thanks to Toby Lowton, Founder at TL Economics and Senior Analytical Manager at NHS England, for his work on the evaluation. Read our blog on Toby's findings, written by our Chief Economist, @jonfranklin.bsky.social and CEO, @mattwhittaker.bsky.social: pbe.co.uk/insights/imp...

pbe.co.uk

Impact squared: Measuring ‘the PBE effect’ on shaping charity income | PBE

Impact sits at the heart of everything we do at PBE, but what about the specifics of our own impact? What does each £1 invested in our organisation end up delivering?

031

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

What if Andy Burnham could raise £15bn – without a tax rise? There's one catch. He'd need to solve the UK’s biggest and least-discussed tax problem. Almost half of all small business corporation tax isn't being paid - and nobody knows why. Thread:

42540271

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

Ciaran Martin @ciaranm.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

My friend, mentor and former boss Gus O’Donnell & I wrote a piece for The House magazine on the us of WhatsApp etc in government. Don’t expect everyone to agree with it but we hope you find it at least interesting and thought provoking www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

politicshome.com

Ministers must be able to let off steam – forcing full WhatsApp disclosure is unwise

The Mandelson files reignited the debate over what to do about the government being run on WhatsApp, which allows disappearing messages and stolen ...

83212

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

Mike Brewer @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I'm stepping down to a new role in the autumn to try to get a bit more "life" in the "work - life balance" thing, so there's a vacancy to do my job: overseeing the research and policy output of RF. What a fab job for someone.

11811

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

New @pbe.co.uk note on non-profit pay trends shows charity employees are earning £3,500 less today than if their pay rises had kept pace with the private sector's. Stems from inflation exposure and highlights the need for new 'shock absorbers' in the sector's income model pbe.co.uk/insights/pay...

Line chart showing inflation-adjusted change in hourly pay across the pay distribution in both the private sector and the non-profit sector. It covers the ten-year period from 2016 to 2025 and is drawn from a UK dataset. It shows that average pay grew by 10.2% in the private sector over the period, but fell by 1.2% in the non-profit sector. In both sectors, growth was strongest at the bottom end of the distribution and weakest at the top. But the non-profit sector under-performed the private sector at every point of the distribution.

022

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Improving children's wellbeing means thinking about the whole child, using a measurement framework that goes beyond school attendance, attainment and crisis. If your org works in this space and wants to understand its impact and build the evidence base, why not try this 👉 pbe.co.uk/impact-measu...

pbe.co.uk

Impact Measurement Training Application Form | PBE

Impact Measurement Training Application Form For charities working with children aged 16 or below Pro Bono Economics (PBE), #BeeWell and IntegratED are collaborating in a programme to advocate for pol...

000

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Here's a neat way (via @jonfranklin.bsky.social) of showing the mismatch between ambition and action when it comes to our offer to children and young people. Two word clouds: the first identifying what matters (health, confidence) and the second showing what gets measured (attendance, attainment)

Word cloud showing what organisations working with children and young people say is important for outcomes: things like health, confidence, skills, and wellbeing.

Word cloud showing what is actually being measured when it comes to children and young people's outcomes: things like attainment, literacy, attendance and behaviour.

120

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 15/05/2026

Are you tired of the non-stop utopian/dystopian AI predictions from CEOs? Do you want to hear what's ACTUALLY happening, from the people it's actually happening TO? If so, I have good news: I felt the same, so I have worn out my shoe-leather & written this book! www.penguin.co.uk/books/462159...

1218851

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Wowsers. Scientists found that between 2005-19, there was a 28% decline in spoken words. While all age groups were affected, participants aged 25 or younger showed a markedly steeper decline in speech. Seems significant and I've not seen this widely referred to www.sciencefocus.com/news/losing-...

sciencefocus.com

We’re losing 338 spoken words every day | BBC Science Focus Magazine

We've been nattering less and less each year since 2005, according to research on more than 2,000 people across three continents

57249

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

PBE @pbe.co.uk · 21/04/2026

In our new report, we set out five recommendations that outline a pathway from improving wellbeing measurement to strengthening the evidence base and enabling more robust long-term analysis. pbe.co.uk/publications...

pbe.co.uk

Levelling the playing field: Measuring wellbeing among people with learning disabilities | PBE

Tools for measuring the impact of services on the wellbeing of the 1.5 million people in the UK with learning disabilities are falling short. Current methodologies focus on factors that are viewed as ...

011

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

PBE @pbe.co.uk · 21/04/2026

We want to level the playing field for people with learning disabilities by establishing more consistent ways to measure the impact of things that affect their lives.

Three people with learning disabilities sit and stand in a group around a table. One person is listening to music on their phone with headphones in and dancing, the other two people are smiling at the camera.

112

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Please help share what must be one of the best jobs ever. We are looking for a writer to join @ourworldindata.org to work with our fantastic team including @maxroser.bsky.social and @hannahritchie.bsky.social. £80k - £120k / ideally full time / location flexible ourworldindata.org/hiring-write...

ourworldindata.org

We’re looking for a writer

We’re hiring a writer who can make the world’s largest problems understandable to our large Our World in Data audience.

396106

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

Joseph Elliott @jelliott94.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

It's a bit of a myth that rents are constantly increasing faster than earnings or overall inflation - on average, they're not. So what *is* the problem of unaffordability in the private rented sector? And what does this mean for how we go about fixing it? Our take 🧵⬇️

34126

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Pre-2020, so I have zero recollection! Sounds like a Kelly special though

110

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

So, any surge in energy and food costs (plus interest rates) would return the cost-of-living crisis to centre stage. For an all-too-large minority however, it never went away. Much will depend on how the conflict plays out of course, but the need to support those already at the edge is clear to see

120

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

This picture of acute challenge for a significant minority is also reflected in demand for charity services. It's down a little from its peak, but the number referred by Citizens Advice each month to foodbanks or other charitable support remained 2.5x higher at end-2025 than in spring-2020

Line chart showing the number of people helped by Citizens Advice Bureaus with referrals to foodbanks or other charitable support in the period from May 2020 to December 2025. The three-month average climbed (with seasonal variation) through to mid-2024. The number has drifted down since then, but remains significantly higher today (close to 25k) than at the start of the series (under 10k).

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

And, behind these averages, the proportion of households displaying signs of extreme difficulty has continued to increase over the last few years. One in every 40 direct debit payments failed in Feb-26, up from one in every 66 ahead of the pandemic

Line chart showing the proportion of direct debit payments that failed to clear in the period from January 2019 to February 2026. Three-month averages are shown for different classifications of payments (fitness facilities, loans, electricity and gas, water, mortgages) and for the overall total. The failure rates have increased steadily across all types. The total failure rate stood at 1.52% in Jan-19 and 2.44% in Feb-26.

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

And with interest rates still markedly higher than many of us had got used to through the 2010s, the proportion reporting difficulty with accommodation costs also remains somewhat elevated

Line chart showing the proportion of adults in Great Britain reporting finding it difficult to afford energy bill payments in the period from March 2022 to February 2026. Figures are survey based and confidence intervals are shown as a shaded band. The 60-day average rose through 2022 and 2023, peaking above 40%. It subsequently fell to around 30% in late-2024. It has been relatively stable since then.

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

And the proportion reporting that their energy costs are hard to afford had also fallen from the 2022/23 peak. Worth noting though that the challenge has remained significant for roughly 1-in-3 even as prices have come down

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

On some measures, things had been – modestly – improving. For example, the proportion of households saying they wouldn’t be able to afford an unexpected expense of £850 had fallen from over-30% in 2022/23 to under-25% in recent months

Line chart showing the proportion of households in Great Britain reporting that they would be unable to afford to pay an unexpected, but necessary, expense of £850 in the period from November 2021 to February 2026. Figures are survey based and confidence intervals are shown as a shaded band. The 60-day average rose through 2021 and 2022, peaking just over 30%. It subsequently fell below 25% towards the end of 2024. It has been relatively stable since then.

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

With household finances set to come under pressure again as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, it’s helpful to have new ONS data out today on the state of play just ahead of the first strikes on Iran at the end of Feb. what does it tell us?

Line chart showing the proportion of households in Great Britain reporting that their cost of living had risen since the previous month in the period from November 2021 to February 2026. Figures are survey based and confidence intervals are shown as a shaded band. The proportion rose through 2021 and 2022, peaking at around 90%. It subsequently fell to a low of around 45% towards the end of 2023. It then rose again, before plateauing more recently, to stand at around 55%.

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Yikes! By posting this though, you have become complicit.

120

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

PBE @pbe.co.uk · 19/03/2026

PBE Volunteer and data analyst Ricard De Haro Flores created a tailored Excel-based data management and reporting tool for the Renewal Trust. 🧑‍💻

Four children play a game — they are smiling and laughing.

121

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

We should therefore probably pay more attention to civil society’s role as a jobs generator. Both in terms of supporting its leading role in driving employment and in doing more to ensure it provides a viable career option for all parts of society. All data via the DCMS: www.gov.uk/government/s...

000

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

But the growth has been unevenly distributed. We've had some rebalancing in the civil society profile by age (the sector now accounts for 2.7% of jobs among 25-34-year-olds, up from 2.3%), but the skew towards women and disabled people and away from ethnic minorities has become more pronounced

Dumbbell chart showing the change in the proportion of all jobs held by different demographic groups (e.g. sex, age, ethnicity) that are accounted for by civil society. Start date is three-year average for 2011-13, end date is three-year average for 2022-24, with arrows showing whether the proportions have risen or fallen for each group.

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

First thing to note is the role civil society has played as an engine of jobs growth. Paid civil society jobs climbed by 29% between 2011 and 2024, compared with 13% in the wider economy. Civil society accounted for 2.5% of all jobs in 2011-13, but drove 5.6% of the economy-wide increase to 2022-24

Bar chart showing the proportion of all growth in jobs between 2011-13 and 2022-24 across different demographic groups (e.g. sex, age, ethnicity) accounted for by civil society jobs. It shows that civil society accounted for 5.6% of all jobs growth, including 7.3% of all growth in jobs held by women, 9.5% of all growth in jobs held by people aged 45-54, 4.9% growth in all jobs held by people with a disability as defined by the Equality Act 210, and 10.6% of all growth in jobs held by white people. Civil society accounted for disproportionately less growth in jobs among people aged 16-24 and ethnic minorities.

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

It’s fairly-well understood that the civil society workforce differs from the wider economy. A much higher share of (paid) jobs are held by women (67%/48%) and disabled people (25%/18%), but relatively few by young people (5%/11% of 16-24s) and ethnic minorities (12%/16%). But how did we get here?

121

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Thanks to all in the @pbe.co.uk network: present and former staff, volunteers, associates, trustees, partners, funders and policy colleagues. We're looking forward to doing even more in 2026. Want to get involved and bolster the strength in numbers we deliver? Take a look: pbe.co.uk/get-involved/

pbe.co.uk

Get involved | PBE

We rely on the support of a wide range of donors and partners to deliver our vital services to charities across the UK - working with trusts, foundations and businesses to support their grantees and c...

010

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

We want to bring the rest of the economist profession with us on this drive to use analytical power to support better outcomes for those at the sharp end of society. Great then to have engaged with a record number last year 👇 helping mainstream a focus on wellbeing across all sectors

Column chart showing the number of economists engaging with PBE in some form or other (volunteering, attending webinars, training) in each year from 2010. It shows that 174 economists engaged in 2025, easily the largest number of record.

110

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

By combining our love of both numbers (data) and numbers (partners), we amplify charities' impact. As with @z2ktrust.bsky.social 👇, where our novel analytical approach shone a new light on the quality-of-life impact of disability benefits and thereby helped inform the wider debate around reform

Case study box featuring Samuel Thomas, Senior Policy Advisor at the charity Z2K. He provides responses to questions about Z2K's experience of working with PBE, noting that they found PBE to be collaborative, impactful and responsive.

110

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

'Strength in numbers', both because data is our thing but also because our impact is driven by collaboration with hundreds of people and orgs across the UK. That now includes our 1,000th economist volunteer, Iseoluwa Adejumo, who generously and expertly supported the charity Welcome to Badminton 👇

Case study box featuring a picture of Iseoluwa Adejumo, along with her responses to a series of questions about her experience of volunteering with PBE. Iseoluwa volunteered with Welcome to Badminton, a charity that offers sports sessions for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to support their wellbeing.

110

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Really pleased to publish our 2025 impact report, showcasing a year in which we arguably did more than ever before to empower UK charities, unleash civil society's potential, and drive the use of economics for good pbe.co.uk/impact_repor... Huge credit and thanks to all in the @pbe.co.uk family

pbe.co.uk

Our impact in 2025 | PBE

The wellbeing challenge is a complex one. In 2025 we used our unique combination of economic expertise and social sector connection to help charities, funders, firms and policymakers tackle the causes...

111

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

PBE @pbe.co.uk · 25/02/2026

Our 2025 impact report – Strength in Numbers – is published today 📣

132

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Really enjoyed discussing what it's like being an @instituteforgovernment.org.uk researcher at the "Working in the think tank sector" event at @resolutionfoundation.org yesterday. Recording available below, with the "Day in a life" panel starting from 1:43. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2S1...

youtube.com

Working in the think tank sector: Webinar for those interested in working in the sector

YouTube video by Resolution Foundation

0810

Reposted by Matt Whittaker

Hannah White @drhannahwhite.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Delighted that we at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk are once again supporting this annual online event aimed at reaching people currently under-represented in the think tank sector… please share with your networks…

92620

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Plenty more to explore in ONS data release: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula... But also worth looking at slightly older data on HEALTHY life expectancy (average time someone lives in "very good" or "good" general health), where gaps across the country are even wider: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

ons.gov.uk

Life expectancy for local areas of the UK - Office for National Statistics

Subnational trends in period life expectancy, a measure of the average number of years people will live beyond their current age.

000

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Older men have narrowed the life expectancy gap with older women in this period, but the gap between the best and worst performing parts of the country has once again widened – rising from 3.1 years in 2002-04 to 4.8 years in 2022-24

Dumbbell chart showing life expectancy in 2002-04, 2012-14 and in 2022-24 in the top three ranked local areas of the UK and the lowest three ranked local areas. Central estimates are shown, alongside 95% confidence intervals. Chart details the number of additional years of life expected, on average, among males aged 65-69.

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Large gaps exist for those who have already made it to older age too, with 65-69-year-old females in the best performing parts of the country enjoying an additional 5.3 years of life expectancy in 2022-24 compared to 65-69-year-olds in the worst performing parts of the country

100

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

The life expectancy gap between the best and worst performing localities is even larger for for boys than for girls, though sizeable improvements among boys in some of the lowest life expectancy areas between 2002-04 and 2012-14 mean the gender difference is less pronounced than it was

110

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Latest data on life expectancy in local areas of the UK shows overall improvements in outcomes over the last 20 years, but a widening of the absolute gap between the best and worst performing parts of the country. Progress has slowed (or even reversed in some areas) in the last decade too

122

Matt Whittaker @mattwhittaker.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Looking at other self-reported measures of wellbeing (and focusing just on overall use) the pattern looks even more pronounced. For example, 21.5% of people who reported low happiness ‘yesterday’ said they’d used drugs in the last year, dropping to 8.5% for those reporting medium levels of happiness

Panel chart with six different line graphs. The top three show the proportion of people reporting using Class A drugs in the last year, while the bottom three show the proportion reporting using any illicit drugs. Within each set of three, one chart shows the pattern of use by level feelings of self-worth, one chart shows the pattern by reported level of happiness, and one shows the pattern of drug use by self-reported level of anxiety. Those with lower sense of worth and happiness were significantly more likely to have reported drug use in the last year. Those with high anxiety tended to be more likely to report drug use than those with low levels of anxiety, but drug use fell among those reporting ‘very high’ levels of anxiety.

100