Wales· Scotland· Social security· Cities and regions The state of the nations Social security in a devolved UK 21 May 2026 by Mark Simpson and Mike Brewer and Alex Clegg and Rod Hick and Tom Lee and Sioned Pearce and Ruth Patrick This report is part of the research programme of ‘Safety Nets: Social security for families in a devolved UK’. We are the first comprehensive, four-country study of the devolution and localisation of social security in the United Kingdom. The project team spans eight universities, Child Poverty Action Group and the Resolution Foundation. Devolution and localisation … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Social security· Tax Happy new tax year 2026 Putting tax and social security changes in the context of rising energy bills 2 April 2026 by Lalitha Try The start of April marks the beginning of the new tax year, meaning households will face a wide range of tax, benefit and utility bill changes. Benefit changes in April will boost incomes for the poorest families, particularly the removal of the two-child limit, which will give back £4,560 this year to the affected families. … Continued READ MORE
Social security Listen and learn Improving the way that Universal Credit works 29 January 2026 by Alex Clegg and Lindsay Judge and Ruth Patrick and Millie Light April 2026 will mark a true milestone for the UK benefits system: the end of the thirteen-year rollout of Universal Credit (UC) that has brought together all means-tested working-age benefits. From this point, an estimated 8.5 million working-age adults and 6.5 million children will be living in households in receipt of UC, equivalent to a … Continued READ MORE
Health and disability· Incomes· Scotland· Social security Delivering dignity? Early lessons from the introduction of Adult Disability Payment in Scotland 8 December 2025 by Lindsay Judge and Louise Murphy When the Scottish Government introduced the Adult Disability Payment (ADP) in 2022 to replace Personal Independence Payment (PIP), it set out to do things differently. [i] Although the two benefits have the same eligibility criteria and are paid at the same rates, Social Security Scotland made it clear that their aim was to treat claimants … Continued READ MORE
Social security The localisation era Assessing the post-2013 rise of localised social security 20 November 2025 by Alex Clegg This report is part of the project Safety Nets: social security for families in a devolved UK, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. It examines the growth of localised social security in the UK from 2013, focusing on how responsibilities for discretionary support and Council Tax Reduction (CTR) have shifted from the UK government to local … Continued READ MORE
Social security No half measures Setting child poverty on a downward course at the Autumn Budget 30 October 2025 by Alex Clegg and Lindsay Judge The Government’s long-awaited Child Poverty Strategy is due next month, close to, or contemporaneous with, the Autumn Budget. There have been some welcome announcements already: the over-indexation of the Universal Credit (UC) standard allowance for the next four years, for example, and the extension of free school meals to all children in families on UC … Continued READ MORE
Housing· Social security Housing Outlook Q4 2025 25 October 2025 by Hannah Aldridge In 2012, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) levels were linked to the 30th percentile of local rents and automatically revised to reflect market changes. However, since the systematic link with market rents was broken 13 years ago, the Government has frozen LHA rates eight times, and repegged to the market level just twice (in 2020 and … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Social security Catching up? Benefit uprating policy for April 2026 22 October 2025 by Lalitha Try September’s inflation data shows that the annual rate of CPI inflation was 3.8 per cent, the same rate it was in August 2025, but more than twice its September 2024 level. This grim news of inflation remaining high came with something of a silver lining as September inflation is usually used to uprate most benefits … Continued READ MORE
Social security· Unsung Britain Don’t forget about us How disabilities and caring responsibilities affect low-to-middle income Britain 17 July 2025 by Hannah Slaughter and Imogen Stone This briefing note combines quantitative data with insights from focus groups to explore how disabilities and caring responsibilities affect these families’ lives and living standards. READ MORE
Health and disability· Incomes· Social security The good, the bad and the messy Responding to the Pathways to Work Green Paper consultation 30 June 2025 by Louise Murphy This week marks an important moment for this Government’s welfare reform plans: as Parliament prepares to vote on major legislation to make cuts to PIP and UC-Health, the consultation on longer-term changes to the benefits system, set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, also closes. There are some good proposals included in the … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Social security Renew and improve Setting up the Household Support Fund for the future 22 May 2025 by Alex Clegg and Ruth Patrick and Jed Meers and Mike Brewer and Uisce Jordan and Millie Light and Rhiannon Simms and Hayley Bennett and Beth Watts-Cobbe and Joe Pardoe This briefing note, part of the Safety Nets project, assesses how the Household Support Fund could be improved in a longer-term settlement, through analysis of administrative data and interviews with local authorities and recipients of the scheme. READ MORE
Incomes· Social security No workaround Assessing the impact of the Spring 2025 disability and incapacity benefit reforms on employment 20 May 2025 by Louise Murphy and Greg Thwaites In March, the Government released its Pathways to Work Green Paper, setting out a package of welfare reforms that amounted to a net reduction in spending of £4.8 billion in 2029-30. On the Government’s own figures, 3.2 million families will lose out, 250,000 people will fall into poverty, and 700,000 families will fall further below the poverty line. These benefit cuts were accompanied by a significant increase in employment support costing a cumulative £1.9 billion between 2026-27 and 2029-30 but with over half of that not coming until the final year. READ MORE
Social security Limited ambition? An assessment of the rumoured options for easing the two-child limit 12 May 2025 by Alex Clegg and Adam Corlett Abolishing the two-child limit would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty; if it is not scrapped, we project that 4.8 million children (34 per cent) will be in poverty by 2029-30, including half of all children in large families. [1] There has been speculation in recent weeks that the Government is considering … Continued READ MORE
Social security· Savings & debt Saving penalties Reforming the capital rules in Universal Credit 24 April 2025 by Molly Broome and Alex Clegg and Ed Pybus Means-tested benefits in Britain are built on the principle that individuals with significant financial resources should use those before turning to the state for help. That’s why wealth – as well as income – is assessed when determining eligibility and entitlement levels for means-tested support. But while income means-testing has been widely studied and debated, … Continued READ MORE
Social security· Tax Happy new tax year 2025 Tax, utility bill and social security changes in April 2025 3 April 2025 by Adam Corlett and Lalitha Try April brings with it a series of tax, benefit and bill rises. We examine what these changes will mean for households and the overall outlook for disposable incomes in 2025-26. READ MORE
Incomes· Budgets & fiscal events· Social security Unsung Britain bears the brunt Putting the 2025 Spring Statement in context 27 March 2025 by Camron Aref-Adib and Mike Brewer and Molly Broome and Alex Clegg and Nye Cominetti and Adam Corlett and Ruth Curtice and Emily Fry and Zachary Leather and Jonathan Marshall and Cara Pacitti and Simon Pittaway and Hannah Slaughter and James Smith and Imogen Stone and Greg Thwaites and Lalitha Try This briefing note analyses the choices the Government has made in the context of an awkward backdrop to the 2025 Spring Statement. READ MORE
Health and disability· Incomes· Social security A dangerous road? Examining the ‘Pathways to Work’ Green Paper 19 March 2025 by Mike Brewer and Alex Clegg and Louise Murphy Yesterday’s Green Paper marks a serious attempt by the Government to tackle two major concerns: the growing spend on disability benefits, and the large number of people who are not working through ill-health. [1] The proposals to tackle the former go much further than reforms suggested by the previous Government; between 800,000 and 1.2 million … Continued READ MORE
Health and disability· Incomes· Social security Delivering the undeliverable Five principles to guide policy makers through reforming incapacity and disability benefits 6 March 2025 by Louise Murphy The Government is set to announce a “radical” Green Paper on health-related benefit reform this Spring, and more immediate benefit cuts are expected ahead of the Spring Statement on 26 March. The backdrop is fast-rising spending on working-age health-related benefits: spending is set to rise by £32bn between 2019-20 and 2029-30, from 1.3% to 2.2% … Continued READ MORE
Childcare· Social security Hard lessons Childcare support for parents in education 9 November 2024 by Lalitha Try England’s childcare system has often been subject to criticism, but government funding has been increased in recent years, especially for parents who work[1]. At the same time, there has been no such increase in support for parents that wish to boost their living standards longer term by undertaking education or training. The childcare system in … Continued READ MORE
Social security Cutbacks ahead Considering the impact of proposed changes to disability benefits on living standards and the public finances 13 October 2024 by Mike Brewer and Louise Murphy The Chancellor has already come under pressure for making one welfare cut to help her address the challenging fiscal outlook in the run up to her first Budget – but there are more in store due to spending commitments inherited from the previous Government. Specifically, if the Government goes ahead with changes to the Work … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Inequality & poverty· Social security Cold comfort Mitigating the Winter Fuel Payment cut 1 October 2024 by Alex Clegg and Jonathan Marshall The announcement that Winter Fuel Payments are to be restricted to recipients of Pension Credit or similar means-tested benefits has sparked controversy[1]. The Government and its defenders point to the lack of sense, in these straitened times, of making fuel payments to all pensioners when the majority do not need them. Opponents, however, highlight the … Continued READ MORE
Social security Growing pressures Exploring trends in children’s disability benefits 17 August 2024 by Louise Murphy Over the last decade, the number of under-16s in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in England and Wales has doubled, reaching 682,000 in 2023, equivalent to one-in-sixteen children. This growing caseload has been driven almost entirely by awards made to children whose main condition is either a learning difficulty, behavioural disorder or attention deficit … Continued READ MORE
General Election 2024· Public finances· Social security Under strain Investigating trends in working-age disability and incapacity benefits 20 June 2024 by Lindsay Judge and Louise Murphy The benefits bill is frequently the subject of intense political debate. But since the pandemic, working-age health-related benefits have moved centre-stage in these discussions, as policy makers aim to understand what sits behind the historical rise in claims, and to contain future pressures too. In this briefing note – part of our Election 2024 work … Continued READ MORE
General Election 2024· Social security· Tax· Political parties and elections Growing for gold? Analysing the tax and spend package of the 2024 Labour Manifesto 14 June 2024 by Molly Broome and Nye Cominetti and Emily Fry and Tara Goatley and Charlie McCurdy and Simon Pittaway and Hannah Slaughter and James Smith and Lalitha Try In launching its manifesto, the Labour Party put the emphasis on efforts to boost growth. But more eye-catching were promises of some of the biggest changes to the labour market in a generation, with the aim of improving the quality of work. Proposals here included new employment rights, tougher labour-market enforcement, and an innovative approach … Continued READ MORE
General Election 2024· Social security Ratchets, retrenchment and reform The social security system since 2010 13 June 2024 by Mike Brewer and Alex Clegg Spending on social security as a share of GDP has risen slightly since the financial crisis, but the system in Great Britain has undergone profound change over the same time. Large-scale structural reforms have fundamentally altered the system’s rules for working-age families, while working-age benefits have been both cut back and then not fully indexed … Continued READ MORE
