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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

→ More broadly: a fundamentally different relationship between the state and people out of work - devolved, community-based employment support in place of DWP's rigid, rules-based approach, and better security for the self-employed and gig economy workers.

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Modelling we commissioned from PolicyEngine UK finds this would be far more effective at raising employment than the previous Govt's misguided PIP reforms.

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

→ A "work what you can" framework for those out of work due to ill health, modelled on successful European schemes, plus employer NI incentives to hire people who've been out of work longest.

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

→ A serious skills upgrade - reversing the collapse in apprenticeships since 2010, better incentives for firm investment, and support funds for individual learning to build resilience in an age of AI.

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

→ An investment-led approach from Govt - including a much bigger, devolved Youth Jobs Guarantee - not policy built on the myth that people out of work simply aren't trying hard enough.

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Burnham's challenge is rebuilding things back in a better state. That requires:

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

The picture we've built: insecure work, with limited autonomy, made the UK distinctly vulnerable during the pandemic - driving a major exit from work among people in the lowest-quality jobs, and those in self-employment or on zero-hours contracts.

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Second: a report for @neweconomics.bsky.social on how high-quality work could drive a jobs recovery - backed by a decade of UK longitudinal data and interviews with people out of work: neweconomics.org/2026/07/the-...

neweconomics.org

The good work effect

How high-quality work can lead a jobs recovery

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

By a happy coincidence, I've got two pieces out today making the case for how the PM's announcements could build the foundations for the the fundamental reforms still needed on education, employment and skills.

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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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Reposted by Tom Stephens

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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Reposted by Tom Stephens

LSE Social Policy @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

Our analysis suggests Govt's ambition to raise employment rates risks being undermined unless it shifts more fundamentally from the welfare system it inherited - which pushes people into "any job", without the personalised support to enable decent work and career progression.

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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

We're dominated by focus on compliance, processes and automation (often with bad data). For DWP, there's clear evidence this undermines delivery of more and better jobs: neweconomics.org/2024/07/term... We should learn from cases like this, and Carer's Allowance, to design a person-centred system.

neweconomics.org

Terms of engagement

Rethinking conditionality to support more people into better jobs

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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

We find this would be better at supporting working families to increase hrs, more progressive, & simpler - combining current complex mess of free hrs, Tax Free CC and UC into single offer. And - if parents increased working hrs/earnings - it'd have virtuous fiscal benefits vs. current system. [5/5]

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

We've looked at the effects of an alternative offer which combines universal and contributory elements: - A core free 15hrs for all children; - For working familes, a % cap on childcare spend above that. To do this, we've built a detailed & dynamic childcare model using a large-scale survey. [4/]

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Even for existing working families, the fully expanded free hours aren't enough to support full-time childcare. It'll remain prohibitively expensive for low-to-middle income families - costing them 2.5-3.5 times more than a family on 90th earnings percentile (& way more for multi-child fams) [/3].

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Tom Stephens @tcstephens.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

To realise economic benefits from childcare, you really need to support poorest families to access it - where social & labour market gains by far the highest. Yet current system denies support to those very same families: the richest 8x more likely to benefit from expanded expanded free hours. [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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Reposted by Tom Stephens

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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Reposted by Tom Stephens

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

See also my talk at #LSEFestival with LSE's Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, where I delve into more of the trends in job quality and the state of local labour markets: www.lse.ac.uk/Events/LSE-F... [2/2]

lse.ac.uk

A society free from poverty: how do we get there and what would it look like?

1pm Mon 16 Jun | Abby Jitendra, Abigail McKnight, Thomas C. Stephens | Free event at the LSE Festival: Visions for the Future | Ticket required

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Reposted by Tom Stephens

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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Reposted by Tom Stephens

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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Reposted by Tom Stephens

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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Reposted by Tom Stephens

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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Reposted by Tom Stephens

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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