Ben Baumberg Geiger
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benbgeiger.bsky.social
Ben Baumberg Geiger
@benbgeiger.bsky.social
1.2K followers 320 following 130 posts
Social policy researcher (though sometimes pretends to be a philosopher), Prof co-leading WelfareExperiences project and kcl.ac.uk/csmh work & welfare strand. Was at @BenBaumberg at the other place.
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Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
rolandmcs.bsky.social
Racist, sexist, disdain of experts, outriders as heroes, scoffing at political correctness, getting angrier....

I feel I know this story.
November 9, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
helenbarnard.bsky.social
Mayfield Review rightly highlights employer incentives for more evidence & then action. But this is the bit that's absolutely crucial and has been ducked by governments for a long time. That must change for better living standards, inclusion &growth.
3/n www.resolutionfoundation.org/comment/from...
From Review to reality • Resolution Foundation
There’s always a danger that official reviews end up generating a lot of talk and symbolic gestures, but don’t set out meaningful steps for change. That’s the challenge faced by the just-published rev...
www.resolutionfoundation.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
helenbarnard.bsky.social
- Useful short term actions: create standard, trial interventions, build up evidence.
- But risk bolder next steps delayed or don't happen.
- Big gap=employer incentives. We won't crack this by just working with the willing. We'll need incentives and enforcement 2/n
November 7, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
helenbarnard.bsky.social
Excellent analysis of Mayfield Review from @benbgeiger.bsky.social & @louisemurphy.bsky.social
@resolutionfoundation.org
- Review has the right diagnosis & analysis of problem & drivers.
- UK labour market isn't in crisis, but does have a long-running problem with disability inclusion.
1/n
From Review to reality • Resolution Foundation
There’s always a danger that official reviews end up generating a lot of talk and symbolic gestures, but don’t set out meaningful steps for change. That’s the challenge faced by the just-published rev...
www.resolutionfoundation.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
joshiherrmann.bsky.social
Extraordinary story from @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social: A London lawyer bought hundreds of Sheffield freeholds. Then the ‘very aggressive’ letters arrived.

One woman: “It broke my heart, that was my savings towards a new car...He has just wiped me out.”

www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/a-london-law...
A London lawyer bought hundreds of Sheffield freeholds. Then the ‘very aggressive’ letters arrived
Exclusive: The Tribune can reveal that Andrew Milne has threatened leaseholders with high court action. It ‘broke my heart’ one woman says
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 2:55 PM
benbgeiger.bsky.social
The Mayfield Review gets a lot right, but there's also ways it needs to go further - a response from me and @louisemurphy.bsky.social on the @resolutionfoundation.org blog:
November 7, 2025 at 10:29 AM
benbgeiger.bsky.social
*Have new WCA claims exploded in the last year?*
My new blog post on (another) mess in DWP statistics...
inequalities.substack.com/p/have-new-w...
Have new WCA claims exploded in the last year?
Yet again, the DWP has been publishing data in a misleading way, making it hard to know what's going on...
inequalities.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
briannosek.bsky.social
Ouch
November 6, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
beccastacey.bsky.social
And the focus is largely on preventing people from falling out of work. While this is crucial, it’s equally important to address the barriers that prevent disabled people from entering work in the first place. We have further work on this coming out in the months ahead
November 5, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
beccastacey.bsky.social
However, it feels a bit too focused on the ‘carrot’. My concern is that this might simply reward employers already doing well on disability employment, without doing much - at least in the initial stages of the plan - to shift the behaviour of those falling short
November 5, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
beccastacey.bsky.social
Initial thoughts on the Keep Britain Working Review

(More reflections to follow in an upcoming blog)
November 5, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
andrewharrop.bsky.social
I missed this last week. The new English index of income deprivation includes UC working households who are on low-incomes AFTER HOUSING COSTS.

This is a big deal technically & means we now have a hyper local measure of LIVING STANDARDS not just incomes.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Almost all children in 73 areas of England live in low-income households
New official measures show levelling up attempts have failed to shift high levels of deprivation
www.theguardian.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
mjrobbins.com
My latest: Move over bat tunnel, here’s the wild story of how HS2 were forced to build a multi-million pound bridge for a road that… doesn’t actually exist.
How HS2 built a bridge to nowhere
A state-of-the-art road bridge has been built deep in the heart of rural Buckinghamshire. Designed to carry traffic over the HS2 railway, there's just one tiny problem - there's no actual road.
martinrobbins.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
huwcdavies.bsky.social
Fantastic, erudite, and provocative essay. Recommended for anyone interested literacy, AI, and education and the future of humanity: "For it is AI that has given the American ruling class the final impetus to more or less abolish education".
October 31, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
oh my god it's still online
October 17, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
resolutionfoundation.org
One-in-ten adults on low-to-middle incomes are now carers.

This has widened the gap between lower and higher income families when it comes to caring responsibilities.
Chart showing proportion of working-age adults who are caring for a sick, disabled or elderly person for at least five hours a week, by income group: UK The chart shows that throughout the 2000s and 2010s, adults in low-to-middle income families were consistently more likely to provide care for at least five hours a week than those on higher incomes, with rates hovering around 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. (This can include caring for someone in the same household or a different household, and the person being cared for can be any age, including disabled children and pensioners). Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, caring rates among low-to-middle income families have increased further, widening the gap; by 2023-24, one-in-ten (10 per cent) low-to-middle income adults had caring responsibilities.
October 17, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
andrewharrop.bsky.social
Excellent article by @chrisgiles.ft.com riffing off recent posts from @benbgeiger.bsky.social

No need for a moral panic about the welfare system

on.ft.com/4ooDEqx
No need for a moral panic about the welfare system
It’s far from perfect, but the UK’s spending is broadly controlled and employment is high
on.ft.com
October 15, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
nyecominetti.bsky.social
Can't believe someone a) had the data to write this paper b) wrote this paper www.nber.org/papers/w3434...
October 13, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
resolutionfoundation.org
The UK is an international outlier when it comes to protection from unfair dismissal.

Our two-year ‘qualifying period’ for unfair dismissal protection is completely out of step with other rich countries, where qualifying periods between three and six months are the norm.

Read more buff.ly/0OSArrI
Chart showing months in job until worker becomes eligible for unfair dismissal protection: OECD countries, 2019 The chart shows that the two-year ‘qualifying period’ in the UK before workers are eligible for unfair dismissal protection is completely out of step with other rich countries, where qualifying periods between three and six months are the norm
October 13, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
samfr.bsky.social
Hadn't realised lots of trusts were no longer prescribing gluten-free food for coeliac kids.

My son is coeliac and his food is so much more expensive. We don't get on prescription because we can afford it but for a family in poverty that's a massive issue.

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...
NHS suggests coeliac children use food banks as doctors blast ‘cruel’ cuts
Clinicians warn of ‘shocking levels of ignorance’ over ‘cruel and risky’ decision to cut gluten-free prescriptions
www.independent.co.uk
October 7, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
cjayanetti.bsky.social
Labour MPs who voted against welfare cuts this summer have warned that plans to change disability benefit assessments could trigger another mass rebellion

Others called for a vote to be delayed until a review into the assessments is complete

By me, for Big Issue: www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
Labour faces another mass rebellion over reforms to universal credit
Welfare secretary Pat McFadden plans further reforms to the benefits system, expected to include abolishing the work capability assessment.
www.bigissue.com
October 3, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
joshuajfriedman.com
One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."
A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute. Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner. I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly, but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to pri-matology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way. Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose. The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why. Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes. I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe. It's a wonderful place (sort of like right out of National Geographic). "To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid." —Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus
October 1, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
demos-uk.bsky.social
✍ NEW BLOG | Putting humanity at the heart of welfare

@j-hancock.bsky.social reflects on 13 years of online conversations evidencing the enduring challenges that people face when navigating the #welfare system.

This blog draws from our ongoing Online Listening research with @jrf-uk.bsky.social.
Putting humanity at the heart of welfare
Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.
demos.co.uk
October 1, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
astrokatie.com
That's quite the chart annotation.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A chart of "Major concerns of PhD candidates." The top text says, "Financial pressures top the list of concerns faced by PhD candidates, but concerns differ among the sexes. Those studying in the United States rank the political landscape as their main worry." The chart shows that in the full survey, political landscape is the biggest concern for about 20% of students (a bit higher for women than men) but there's an annotation saying "In US PhD students, this rose to 64%". Overall, the highest-rated concern was financial pressures at around 40%.
September 30, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Ben Baumberg Geiger
samfr.bsky.social
I'm getting really really fed up at constant reassertion that welfare spending is "out of control" when it is the same as the average for the past few decades.

One reason disability benefit costs have risen is because core support has fallen.
September 30, 2025 at 12:19 PM