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Tom Stephens

@tcstephens.bsky.social
661 followers 195 following 32 posts

Senior Fellow @neweconomics.bsky.social | Fellow @lsepublicpolicy.bsky.social | PhD from @lsesocialpolicy.bsky.social | Fmr Jobs/Ed Lead @ Brent Council | Worked on infected blood campaign & abortion decriminalisation w/ @damedianajohnson.bsky.social

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Reposted by Tom Stephens
New Economics Foundation @neweconomics.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Our latest analysis found that workers in poor-quality jobs are 3x more likely to drop out of work. And the biggest factors pushing people out: insecure work and a lack of autonomy in the workplace.
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
There's lots of discussion today on NEETs, welfare and employment policy - including a welcome PM announcement on ramping up vocational education in schools, as part of a serious drive to reverse the UK's post-Covid labour market decline.
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Rebuilding Britain's jobs market is one of the biggest challenges facing the PM. New stats show vacancies still lagging, employment rates below pre-Covid levels and - as Burnham has grasped - a NEETs crisis. My latest for @politicshome.bsky.social on three principles for a genuine policy reset:
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PoliticsHome @politicshome.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
The welfare bill is a symptom, and not the cause, of an underlying lack of good work, training and support Fixing this crisis is one of the biggest challenges facing the Andy Burnham government – but it can be done, writes @tcstephens.bsky.social of @neweconomics.bsky.social
politicshome.com
Solving our jobs crisis will require a deep policy reset
Rebuilding the job market is one of the biggest challenges facing Andy Burnham. But it can be done.
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lsesocialpolicy.bsky.social @lsesocialpolicy.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
🎉 Congratulations to Department of Social Policy PhD alumnus tcstephens.bsky.social who has been awarded funding by the EU Commission under its Horizon Europe programme, for a 2.5-year Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. ➡️
buff.ly
MSCA Fellowship
Congratulations to Department of Social Policy PhD alumnus Tom Stephens who has been awarded €329,241 of funding by the EU Commission under its Horizon Europe programme, for a 2.5-year Marie…
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Pleased to put out this new analysis with @maxmosley.bsky.social into the deeper barriers UK workers face in getting sustainable jobs, with genuine progression opportunities and proper in-work support - including first-ever data on the job quality of people on Universal Credit.👇
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Reposted by Tom Stephens
New Economics Foundation @neweconomics.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
NEW: Our latest analysis suggests strict conditions faced by people in receipt of benefits are forcing them into low quality jobs. This risks undermining the government's employment targets, as people forced into low-paid, insecure jobs are less likely to stay in work.
Text: Why pushing people into any job risks undermining the UK’s ambition for high employment. The government's current approach to conditionality may be pushing people into low-quality jobs and creating a cycle of insecurity
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Frustrated but hardly surprised by this growing build up of child benefit mishandling cases. They reflect systemic issues with the way our welfare services engage with claimants. No prior engagement re issues. No chance to correct bad data. Just automatic suspension of payments (1/2)
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
A pretty hefty piece of @neweconomics.bsky.social analysis out today by me & @pollardtom.bsky.social, in collaboration with @jrf-uk.bsky.social, on the problems with free hours-based childcare system Labour inherited - & case for a more progressive alternative 👇[1/] neweconomics.org/2025/07/the-...
neweconomics.org
The Universal Family Childcare Promise
Guaranteeing support for parents and children
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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 18/07/2025
NEW: There’s been a lot of discussion lately about rising graduate unemployment. I dug a little closer and a striking story emerged: Unemployment is climbing among young graduate *men*, but college-educated young women are generally doing okay. www.ft.com/content/a9ea...
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Refreshing piece here on complexity of graduate job market, going beyond just blaming 'AI'. Quite like this (👇) on health/care sector - you see a similar picture in UK occupational growth projections. Unsurprising if you think about it given ageing pop, but lost amidst tech-focussed policy debate!
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Tom Pollard @pollardtom.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
The updated poverty impact assessment for the disability benefits cuts once again offsets the impact of not proceeding with the previous government's proposed changes to the WCA The impact of actual changes happening in the real world is likely to be closer to 250k people pushed into poverty
Table from government impact assessment suggesting 150,000 people will be pushed into poverty by the amended proposed cuts & changes to disability and health benefits
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
We've seen alarming trends in in-work poverty in the UK - despite rises in the Living Wage. I've written a piece for @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social looking at the role 'good work' can play in tackling this, based on @neweconomics.bsky.social analysis: blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp... [1/2]
blogs.lse.ac.uk
The role of “good jobs” in tackling in-work poverty - British Politics and Policy at LSE
Labour is right to focus on "good jobs" but, Thomas Stephens warns, this Government ambition needs to be coupled with its Industrial Strategy and deeper reforms to the welfare system.
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Maya Sen @mayasen.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Ok so yeah, this has quickly become the #1 misunderstanding about the canceled grants the grants are not “subsidies” or “entitlements” to Harvard or Princeton or whatever they aren’t going into universities’ endowments they are competitive contracts won by these universities to do research
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Tom Pollard @pollardtom.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
This, from a DWP press release yesterday (gov.uk/government/n...), is outrageous In two short paragraphs it peddles multiple falsehoods about the current system that will be used to justify upcoming cuts & changes Here's what MPs & journalists should be challenging... 🧵
Text from a DWP press release: In the current dysfunctional system, a person is placed in binary categories of either “fit for work” or “not fit for work” through the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) – an assessment the government has said it will either reform or replace, so it no longer drives people who want to work to a life on benefits.  

Through this process, those not fit for work are told they have Limited Capability for Work Related Activity (LCWRA) – meaning they won’t receive employment support or further engagement from the system at any point following their assessment – effectively abandoning and locking them out of work indefinitely.
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Dr Calum Carson @drcalumcarson.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Pleased to see the launch of the first output from our @irhws.bsky.social project today, exploring disabled workers' experiences of remote & hybrid working and putting forward a number of policy recommendations for the government. Thread below on some of our key findings 👇
lancaster.ac.uk
Beyond the Office? How remote and hybrid working can help close the disability employment gap - Lancaster University
New interim report from Lancaster University, the Work Foundation, Manchester Metropolitan University and Universal Inclusion - funded by the Nuffield Foundation - reveals that five years on from the ...
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Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Interesting piece. There's a related but different point which sounds techy but matters. Under UC those without kids & not on UC-health (though many will still have a health condition) don't receive a 'work allowance'. Which makes p/t work much less attractive than it should be....
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Civil servant source says DOGE has made agencies much less efficient: "Work has ground down to a stunning degree and management is spending a significant amount of time responding & preparing to respond to the chaos incited by the never ending barrage of EOs & accompanying memos" Many make no sense🧵
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Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Why do we see so few working class and ethnic minority young people in professional jobs? Important new @nuffieldfoundation.org funded research using large-scale employer data sheds new light on the processes through which these inequalities arise.
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Tom Clark @tom-clark.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
1/ The rocketing Council Tax burden at the bottom of the income distribution quietly recreating the worst problems of the Poll Tax www.resolutionfoundation.org/comment/risi...
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Jess McCabe @jessmccabe.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
I’m not keen on the framing of this story, which veers at least close to blaming Rayner for not reporting the messages about herself in 2022. Let’s not pretend that for women reporting sexist abuse about yourself is some kind of risk free exercise www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Angela Rayner reportedly told about offensive WhatsApp joke in 2022
Deputy prime minister reportedly told separately by two councillors about lewd messages about her on group
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Here we see a slightly different UK pattern: young men appear more liberal than they used to be, but women becoming more so [this is 'two-speed liberalisation' in the UK vs 'polarisation' in the US/South Korea]. But nb the indicator here is patterns of party support so unpicking this tricky
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
This is why you don't design curricula around "jobs of the future". We can't predict the future but we do know what general skills and knowledge will be valuable whatever job you do.
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Cassia Rowland @cassiarowland.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Great article from @lizziedearden.bsky.social on the Single Justice Procedure, which now accounts for more than half of all criminal cases. Vast majority have no representation for the defendant and they can be decided in under a minute - w/ lifelong consequences. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01...
telegraph.co.uk
‘I was charged for fare dodging when I was 7,000 miles away. Britain’s fast-track justice is flawed’
A Telegraph investigation has uncovered numerous wrongful prosecutions under the Single Justice Procedure, used to deal with minor offences
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Victoria Derbyshire @vicderbyshire.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Some people in recent days have alleged a ‘cover-up’ over the grooming & rape of hundreds of young girls in predominantly northern UK towns, leading to calls for a ‘national’ public inquiry into child sexual exploitation FWIW here’s a non-exhaustive list of inquiries into #CSE in last 12 yrs…
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Martin Lodge @martinlodge.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Christopher Hood has died today. Public administration has lost one of its absolute best. RIP
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Chris Terry-Enescu @cjterry.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Big shout out to the 36% of Lib Dem voters who don't have a favourable view of liberalism.
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Daniel Keywan Hollister @dkh.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Storytime. In 2005, my mom died from cancer, but the real cause was the actions taken by an insurance company 12 years earlier. What happened to her was evil, hard to identify or fight, and hidden from the public by legal mechanisms. Because of that, I have no idea how often it has happened.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Relatedly, what is mithering me about a lot of the commentary around the “six milestones” are the comparisons with Sunak’s 5 pledges that proceed as if the shortcoming of the pledges was that voters don’t like numbered lists anymore rather than “you do actually need to achieve the pledges”.
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George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
A remarkable stat: Heidi Alexander’s appointment as Transport Secretary means the cabinet is now 100% state-educated for the first time in history.
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Tom Pollard @pollardtom.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
It looks like there'll be lots to welcome in the government's plans for improving employment support (despite unhelpful noise about 'cracking down') @neweconomics.bsky.social has been leading calls for a shift from compliance to engagement, but it won't come easily...🧵 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Sir Keir Starmer says Britain ‘isn’t working’ as he announces jobs push
The government plans include overhauling job centres, but reforms to benefits are delayed until next year.
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Really thought-provoking piece, this. 👇 However I'd suggest some of debate unhelpfully confusing 2nd Reading with "passing a bill." Liberty want more + longer consensus-building (fair): but wouldn't giving it a Committee Stage facilitate exactly that? (N.B: I'm still unsure on Bill, regardless)
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Cassia Rowland @cassiarowland.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
I think this is an excellent read. Perhaps it’s cowardly to say I’m glad I don’t have to vote on this bill — like many disabled people, I have very complex feelings in this issue.
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Rebecca Florisson @rebeccaflorisson.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Lots of helpful detail here on the Get Britain Working white paper: youth guarantee, localised employment support pilots, less of the tick box in jobcentres and more personalised focus. 🧵 1/3 www.personneltoday.com/hr/get-brita...
personneltoday.com
Get Britain Working: DWP unveils employment support reforms
Government unveils biggest reforms to employment support for a generation with the publication of its Get Britain Working white paper.
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
A bit late to today's news, but I always liked this '07 BBC retelling of John P's time serving Anthony Eden on an ocean liner in '57. I'm sure Eden would've never imagined the waiter would not only become Deputy PM - but achieve far more in Govt than he ever did. #RIP www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Prescott at Your Service - BBC Sounds
Exploring a strange coincidence from 1957, when John Prescott was a cruise ship waiter.
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Nye Cominetti @nyecominetti.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
V important from Adam 👇 UK's employment rate might actually NOT be down on pre-pandemic levels. There is still uncertainty but personally I am now more prepared to believe this than the LFS, which describes a UK post-pandemic participation hit unique among rich countries.
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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 19/11/2024
Despite a massive head start, BlueSky has now overtaken Threads in the US 👇
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Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 25/10/2024
How politics is distorting economic data - really interesting column here from Paul Donovan of UBS. In particular, partisanship is skewing influential surveys of consumer and business sentiment. Remarkable chart. www.ft.com/content/1ec7...
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Rebecca Florisson @rebeccaflorisson.bsky.social · 08/10/2024
Heads up, the DWP's next release of employment figures (5 Nov) for disabled people will include info on job quality. This is a really good thing, as there's not only an employment gap, but also a pay gap and an insecure work gap — really important to track those differential outcomes.
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L Chupacabra: The Pope Of Chili Town @lchupacabra.bsky.social · 02/10/2024
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Emily Andrews @emilyishness.bsky.social · 03/09/2024
Gavin’s essay contains this perfect articulation of a key AI problem. And many other insights, so you should read it!
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 01/09/2024
The Economist has published a deeply-researched story about car bloat -- and it's very, very damning. "For every life that the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks save, there are more than a dozen lives lost in other vehicles." Well worth your time: www.economist.com/interactive/...
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 28/08/2024
This has received less attention than it should, because the overall result was in line with expectations. But in a closer contest an error of this scale would be enough to deliver a surprise outcome (as it did in 1992 & 2015) - something to remember if polls are narrower ahead of the next election
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Stephen Frost @sfrost.bsky.social · 25/08/2024
“The area of Greater London given over to golf courses is vast. If golf courses were a London Borough in their own right, it would be the 15th largest; bigger than Brent… Golf takes up 17% of all of the available green space in London.” Fascinating analysis 👉 golfbelt.russellcurtis.co.uk
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Geoff Barton @realgeoffbarton.bsky.social · 25/08/2024
This Wendy Cope poem is new to me. It’s quietly magnificent.
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 25/08/2024
Always have a coder eyeball your fundraising emails.
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 23/08/2024
Great thread below on the philosophical roots of Harris' / Walz' framing of "freedom". 👇 Hard agree. Can trace it back to Isaiah Berlin's distinction between negative ("freedom from") vs. positive ("freedom to") liberty. Too much modern debate frames freedom exclusively in negative terms.
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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 22/08/2024
Counter-point: surely for analogy to work said calculator would've needed to serve earlier students the *formulas* as well as crunch the numbers? Hence maybe LLM *is* uniquely bad because students can copy 100% w/ zero engagement, in ways old tech (eg Google) couldn't quite due to eg Turnitin? 1/2
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James Plunkett @jamestplunkett.bsky.social · 20/08/2024
Amazing chart. And it was already too low in 2009.
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