Tom MacInnes
@tommacinnes.bsky.social
Interim Director of Policy, Citizens Advice. Policy stuff, data, graphs, that kind of thing.
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
Speaking to the Unsung Britain conference yesterday, @claremoriarty.bsky.social from @citizensadvice.bsky.social emphasised the importance of joined up policy making ⤵️
February 11, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Speaking to the Unsung Britain conference yesterday, @claremoriarty.bsky.social from @citizensadvice.bsky.social emphasised the importance of joined up policy making ⤵️
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
NEW: Planned welfare reform could see big benefit cuts for disabled people who can't work, Citizens Advice has warned
The government wants to replace long-term ESA disability benefits with a new, much more time-limited benefit called Unemployment Insurance (UI) www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
The government wants to replace long-term ESA disability benefits with a new, much more time-limited benefit called Unemployment Insurance (UI) www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
Disabled people could face benefit cuts – even if they cannot work
Long-term claimants of employment and support allowance could be moved over to a new, time-limited disability benefit – equating to cuts.
www.bigissue.com
January 23, 2026 at 9:38 AM
NEW: Planned welfare reform could see big benefit cuts for disabled people who can't work, Citizens Advice has warned
The government wants to replace long-term ESA disability benefits with a new, much more time-limited benefit called Unemployment Insurance (UI) www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
The government wants to replace long-term ESA disability benefits with a new, much more time-limited benefit called Unemployment Insurance (UI) www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
That’s a lot of fireworks.
January 1, 2026 at 12:02 AM
That’s a lot of fireworks.
A great, great thread
The most stressed out I've ever been about Christmas was when I was 16 and I got my first ever job, working at M&S in Dundrum. As soon as I started I kept hearing these myths about the Christmas Eve Waste Sale, where all the food that wasn't sold on the 24th was marked down 90%.
December 24, 2025 at 7:21 PM
A great, great thread
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
This year - one of both mat leave and reporting travels around the country - I've found an alternative story to the "Broken Britain" narrative.
My column for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Christmas issue:
My column for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Christmas issue:
I was wrong about Broken Britain
The country can feel divided and lost, but there’s always another side to the story
www.newstatesman.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:43 PM
This year - one of both mat leave and reporting travels around the country - I've found an alternative story to the "Broken Britain" narrative.
My column for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Christmas issue:
My column for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Christmas issue:
Late shout for this. Still time to register!
Ahead of our end of year Data Insights session (sign up here! Featuring special guest @anooshc.bsky.social from the New Statesman www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/turning-th...) I wrote something very short on the 2 child limit, living standards and political ambition medium.com/p/9e10a39f80cf
Turning the Tide or Treading Water? Living Standards After the Budget
After the government’s key announcements and the recent Autumn Budget, we’ll explore what those decisions mean for households and families.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
December 11, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Late shout for this. Still time to register!
Ahead of our end of year Data Insights session (sign up here! Featuring special guest @anooshc.bsky.social from the New Statesman www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/turning-th...) I wrote something very short on the 2 child limit, living standards and political ambition medium.com/p/9e10a39f80cf
Turning the Tide or Treading Water? Living Standards After the Budget
After the government’s key announcements and the recent Autumn Budget, we’ll explore what those decisions mean for households and families.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
December 8, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Ahead of our end of year Data Insights session (sign up here! Featuring special guest @anooshc.bsky.social from the New Statesman www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/turning-th...) I wrote something very short on the 2 child limit, living standards and political ambition medium.com/p/9e10a39f80cf
100% against the concept of things/ people being ‘overrated’. Goes for music, football, films whatever. If you don’t like it, say what you think, don’t bring others’ opinions into it.
Earlier in the day, I'd seen someone post an article, The Twenty Most Overrated Albums of 2025, and I glanced at it with an eye roll, KNOWING that the Geese album would be no 1, as indeed it was, and I just thought OH FUCK OFF. Sometimes people are rated because they're fucking fantastic.
Just saw Cameron Winter at the Roundhouse. My god what a phenomenon he is ❤️
December 2, 2025 at 8:52 AM
100% against the concept of things/ people being ‘overrated’. Goes for music, football, films whatever. If you don’t like it, say what you think, don’t bring others’ opinions into it.
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
The living standards crisis will worsen without urgent action.
Targeted bill support is needed. For energy alone, it could save 5.6 million households an average of £360 a year.
The government and suppliers must act now to stop people spiralling into debt.
Targeted bill support is needed. For energy alone, it could save 5.6 million households an average of £360 a year.
The government and suppliers must act now to stop people spiralling into debt.
December 1, 2025 at 1:59 PM
The living standards crisis will worsen without urgent action.
Targeted bill support is needed. For energy alone, it could save 5.6 million households an average of £360 a year.
The government and suppliers must act now to stop people spiralling into debt.
Targeted bill support is needed. For energy alone, it could save 5.6 million households an average of £360 a year.
The government and suppliers must act now to stop people spiralling into debt.
It is a lot of tweets but it’s worth reading. As he says - you can disagree on the substance. But we need to talk about the substance!
That is a lot of tweets. If you got this far you deserve a prize. Reasonable people will debate this growth strategy. But claiming there isn’t one is lazy nonsense. Higher growth matters because rising living standards are the goal, and higher investment is a key tool.
December 1, 2025 at 8:54 AM
It is a lot of tweets but it’s worth reading. As he says - you can disagree on the substance. But we need to talk about the substance!
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
"Scrapping the two-child limit and addressing high energy bills will prevent hundreds of thousands of children from growing up in poverty and help households across the country keep the lights on."
Our CEO responds to today's Autumn Budget ⤵️
https://bit.ly/4pDEOzb
Our CEO responds to today's Autumn Budget ⤵️
https://bit.ly/4pDEOzb
November 26, 2025 at 3:02 PM
"Scrapping the two-child limit and addressing high energy bills will prevent hundreds of thousands of children from growing up in poverty and help households across the country keep the lights on."
Our CEO responds to today's Autumn Budget ⤵️
https://bit.ly/4pDEOzb
Our CEO responds to today's Autumn Budget ⤵️
https://bit.ly/4pDEOzb
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
Great to see energy bills cut by average £150 in the budget - with the focus rightly on tackling the disproportionate cost of electricity. This should make it easier for people to benefit from clean power, and support people on electric heating, who are often in the deepest fuel poverty 1/2
November 26, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Great to see energy bills cut by average £150 in the budget - with the focus rightly on tackling the disproportionate cost of electricity. This should make it easier for people to benefit from clean power, and support people on electric heating, who are often in the deepest fuel poverty 1/2
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
Poverty is so expensive to our state and public services. It damages life chances for children and has a massive drag on the economy.
Here’s what one of our brilliant frontline advisers wrote in our Budget submission on this:
Here’s what one of our brilliant frontline advisers wrote in our Budget submission on this:
November 26, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Poverty is so expensive to our state and public services. It damages life chances for children and has a massive drag on the economy.
Here’s what one of our brilliant frontline advisers wrote in our Budget submission on this:
Here’s what one of our brilliant frontline advisers wrote in our Budget submission on this:
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
Scrapping the two-child limit is a brilliant step forward. Reversing this cruel policy will not only pull hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty altogether (and lift many more out of very deep poverty); it will also stop over 100 additional children from being pulled into poverty every day
November 26, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Scrapping the two-child limit is a brilliant step forward. Reversing this cruel policy will not only pull hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty altogether (and lift many more out of very deep poverty); it will also stop over 100 additional children from being pulled into poverty every day
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
One of the big mistakes the left made was branding tax credits as corporate welfare.
You need cash transfers as well as a minimum wage because different people have different financial needs.
A minimum wage high enough to support three kids and a disabled spouse is not a sensible minimum wage.
You need cash transfers as well as a minimum wage because different people have different financial needs.
A minimum wage high enough to support three kids and a disabled spouse is not a sensible minimum wage.
This is another thing I had to cut from my piece - the minimum wage is best understood as an anti-poverty measure *for single or childless couples at the start of their working lives*. But it's not a lever that helps most people struggling to make ends meet. Only cash transfers do that.
Why the two-child limit has to go, in a chart.
November 25, 2025 at 7:34 PM
One of the big mistakes the left made was branding tax credits as corporate welfare.
You need cash transfers as well as a minimum wage because different people have different financial needs.
A minimum wage high enough to support three kids and a disabled spouse is not a sensible minimum wage.
You need cash transfers as well as a minimum wage because different people have different financial needs.
A minimum wage high enough to support three kids and a disabled spouse is not a sensible minimum wage.
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
Why the two-child limit has to go, in a chart.
November 25, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Why the two-child limit has to go, in a chart.
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
Buckle up friend it’s time for bread made out of crisps 🍞 🥔
Full disclosure it was not a flawless first attempt.
The aim was to make a loaf of bread where the majority ingredient is crisps.
1. Buy 450g of crisps, without shame
Full disclosure it was not a flawless first attempt.
The aim was to make a loaf of bread where the majority ingredient is crisps.
1. Buy 450g of crisps, without shame
November 23, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Buckle up friend it’s time for bread made out of crisps 🍞 🥔
Full disclosure it was not a flawless first attempt.
The aim was to make a loaf of bread where the majority ingredient is crisps.
1. Buy 450g of crisps, without shame
Full disclosure it was not a flawless first attempt.
The aim was to make a loaf of bread where the majority ingredient is crisps.
1. Buy 450g of crisps, without shame
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
You can’t cut child poverty without scrapping the two child benefit limit, and you can’t be a Labour government if you preside over rising child poverty. Me for @labourlist.bsky.social on the route to getting done what Labour must get done. labourlist.org/2025/11/gord...
'Gordon Brown, Labour MPs, and voters agree: Act on child poverty now' - LabourList
Gordon Brown, Labour MPs and the public agree - tax gambling companies and end child poverty now.
labourlist.org
November 9, 2025 at 10:23 AM
You can’t cut child poverty without scrapping the two child benefit limit, and you can’t be a Labour government if you preside over rising child poverty. Me for @labourlist.bsky.social on the route to getting done what Labour must get done. labourlist.org/2025/11/gord...
Really good thread from Becca here
Initial thoughts on the Keep Britain Working Review
(More reflections to follow in an upcoming blog)
(More reflections to follow in an upcoming blog)
November 5, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Really good thread from Becca here
Proper good news today - the Renters' Rights Act gets Royal Assent. Citizens Advice see 200 people a day with problems in private rented housing. The act shifts the balance towards tenants, but it's just the start, as @tessthompsonca.bsky.social says here wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/the-renters-...
The Renters’ Rights Act is here — but the work is just beginning
After years of waiting, the Renters’ Rights Act has finally received Royal Assent and passed into law. We’ve campaigned hard for this, and…
wearecitizensadvice.org.uk
October 28, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Proper good news today - the Renters' Rights Act gets Royal Assent. Citizens Advice see 200 people a day with problems in private rented housing. The act shifts the balance towards tenants, but it's just the start, as @tessthompsonca.bsky.social says here wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/the-renters-...
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
Is saying that the Jews run the world antisemitic or just vigilant? Tune in for next week's episode of "is it racist to be racist"
Is the Reform MP who says she’s driven mad by TV adverts full of Black & Asian people a racist or realist? How many migrants would the Tories expel? & should the UK be selling fighter jets to Türkiye?
Join LIVE at 9PM on X & YouTube or on ITV1 at 1045PM 📺
#Peston
Join LIVE at 9PM on X & YouTube or on ITV1 at 1045PM 📺
#Peston
October 28, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Is saying that the Jews run the world antisemitic or just vigilant? Tune in for next week's episode of "is it racist to be racist"
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
Every word of this.
Freezing Local Housing Allowance ultimately lowers living standards for low-income private renters.
Other income boosts cannot compensate for the loss experienced from LHA failing to keep up with rents.
Read the latest Housing Outlook➡️https://buff.ly/iZ80qbA
Other income boosts cannot compensate for the loss experienced from LHA failing to keep up with rents.
Read the latest Housing Outlook➡️https://buff.ly/iZ80qbA
October 27, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Every word of this.
Reposted by Tom MacInnes
