My only question with the signing would be whether we have enough midfield depth once Nørgaard converts to #9.

Louis Moholo-Moholo, 1940-2025. One of the giants of the South African jazz diaspora in the UK. RIP.

At £118.75 a week, low statutory sick pay is a real issue.

One figure we didn’t include: households with a full-time worker spend £193 a week on essentials like food, housing, fuel and power.

Even among lower income households, it’s £128.

SSP doesn’t cover the basics.

I was staggered to learn just how much pay typically swings about from month-to-month, even for the steadily-employed c/o @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social @stephenpjenkin1.bsky.social @nyecominetti.bsky.social

We're all on @voxeu.org setting out their findings
cepr.org/voxeu/column...

It's a scandal.

We cannot create reliefs like R&D tax relief. I's generous, vague, and impossible to police - a dangerous combination. Better to have narrowly focussed reliefs which are only available to a much smaller number of businesses doing really serious R&D.

Interesting piece on a hard topic – the risk of overdiagnosis in mental health and the need to respond to distress with care.

☕️Sunday morning read ☕️

Sacha Romanovitch, Chair of the @healthfoundation.bsky.social Commission For Healthier Working Lives has written in the @financialtimes.com about how to keep people with health conditions in employment.

First 3 clicks are not paywalled!

This little bit of the OBR report is a very technocratic description of an almighty row between them and DWP....

Responding to today’s Spring Statement, our Chief Executive, Jennifer Dixon says the Chancellor's cuts risk compromising people's health, with changes to benefits that will leave many people worse off, in worse health and less able to return to work.

Read our full response ⬇️

buff.ly/YZ6EXKJ

Genuinely serious, realistic appraisal of our current predicament from @anthonypainter.bsky.social. Highly recommended.

anthonypainter.substack.com/p/brexterity...

Some really useful reflections - an interesting point to explore further is whether and how groups should be considered differently (or not).

Useful chart and way of understanding trends. Minor point of clarity, is this percentage change in the rate or a percentage points change?

Our Commission for Healthier Working Lives set out some positive steps here: www.health.org.uk/reports-and-...

We’re expecting more from the Mayfield Review on the role of employers this week. Bold change and a long-term vision are increasingly urgent. We need to take a serious look at how to make work more accessible for people with health challenges and prevent health-related job loss.

The government has called for a 'decisive shift' towards prevention and early intervention. With 300,000 people a year leaving work and reporting work-limiting conditions, it should deliver on that promise. But yesterday’s announcements did not make it much clearer how or when that will happen.

As noted, cuts to health-related benefits risk worsening living standards and health. The case for reducing eligibility for PIP as a route to work doesn’t stand up - perhaps because a real answer would highlight the need for investment, while the government’s main aim is to say it’s spending less.

Mini flurry of new DWP reports yesterday:
1. Impact of extra Work Coach time on employment: www.gov.uk/government/p...
2. Estimates of lost output etc due to ill health preventing work www.gov.uk/government/s...
3. Data on durations on incapacity benefits. www.gov.uk/government/s...

This summarises today's Green Paper well: cuts are guaranteed while additional financial support is speculative.

Cuts to PIP and UC-health will not be consulted on, so are almost certainly going to be scored by the OBR next week - but plans to compensate those who lose out are uncertain...

Agreed. Our Commission for HWLs called for something similar last week, suggesting a ‘rehabilitation’ benefit period – with a contributory element – for up to 12 months after leaving work: www.health.org.uk/reports-and-...

The rise in distress can be absolutely real and *at the same time* not (fully) explain why people are unable to work. For that, we need to also look at precarious work, broken education & a welfare system that only offers one way to describe your barriers to work: www.health.org.uk/features-and...

Overdiagnosis of mental disorders is making headlines again, this time thanks to Wes Streeting. But it is true?

(thread)

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

And this is a helpful piece from @faisalislam.bsky.social
– good to see discussion on a more long-term, preventative approach to work and health: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The government is right to try to 'de-risk' the journey into work for people on incapacity benefits, through the kind of 'right to try' they are trailing today

Taken along with the plans to improve employment support announced last year, it could have formed a transformative agenda

But... 1/3

Good to see this - it reflects one of seven recommendations from the @healthfoundation.bsky.social's Commission for #HealthierWorkingLives. The government must move beyond short-term fixes and invest in long-term support for work and health. More in the Commission’s final report: