Carri Swann
@carriswann.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.1K following 220 posts
Welfare rights/social security at @cpaguk.bsky.social. Posting in a personal capacity. Repost ≠ endorsement 📍Nottingham
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Try feeds if you want to broaden your horizons.

This one’s far from perfect but if you’re interested in UK benefits/welfare rights/social security, give it a try.

If you want your post to appear on the feed, using #welfarerights will always work.
Reposted by Carri Swann
That's not to say there's nothing the government could do to improve the welfare system. But the idea that costs are "out of control" compared to the past is wrong and leads to misdiagnosis.
Reposted by Carri Swann
Really important High Court decision today, quashing a local authority’s council tax reduction scheme. The judgment contains many lessons about these schemes. Trafford's scheme was ultra vires, irrational, and unlawfully discriminatory, and breached the PSED @rightsnet.org.uk @nawra.bsky.social
Judgment header of R (LL and AU) v Trafford Council [2025] EWHC 2380 (Admin) (19 September 2025)
Reposted by Carri Swann
Reposted by Carri Swann
'Artificial intelligence tools used by more than half of England’s councils are downplaying women’s physical and mental health issues and risk creating gender bias in care decisions, research [led by Sam Rickman, LSE] has found.' 1/2
AI tools used by English councils downplay women’s health issues, study finds
Exclusive: LSE research finds risk of gender bias in care decisions made based on AI summaries of case notes
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Carri Swann
New government data on the impact of the two child limit: 469,780 households now affected, with 1,665,540 children in those households

Almost 40,000 more children affected since last year

It's a child poverty machine & it will cost us all more in the long term - get rid of it
Reposted by Carri Swann
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨🚨🚨

The United Nations is calling for the UK Government to stop the Universal Credit (PIP) Bill because it will 'deepen the signs of regression' in disabled people's human rights.

tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/...
tbinternet.ohchr.org
Reposted by Carri Swann
Updated #ChartOfTheDay: the UK sits just below the middle of the pack on social spending.
 
The UK spends ~23% of GDP on social protection according to the OECD. The DWP's lower figure of 10.8% only covers DWP benefits - not the NHS. Today’s chart uses the broader, more comparable OECD measure.
Reposted by Carri Swann
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill 2024-25 - Progress of the bill https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10302/
This last change, for existing claimants, may actually have been removed as one of the first tranche of concessions…
For existing claimants, the value of health elements will be frozen at their current rates until 2029.

So no inflationary increases each April when other benefits (and other parts of UC) are uprated.
The Bill says it will be frozen in value until 2029
Specifically it cuts this element for most new claimants from £423 to £217 per month.
Specifically it cuts this element for most new claimants from £423 to £217 per month.
Specifically it cuts this element for most new claimants from £423 to £217 per month.
Yes, for most new claimants. A cut in support for this group (if not experienced as a drop in income by individual households)
Section 2 of the Bill still halves the LCWRA (‘health’) element of universal credit from April. Big cut for disabled people on the lowest incomes
Section 2 of the Bill still halves the LCWRA (‘health’) element of universal credit from April. Big cut for disabled people on the lowest incomes
Section 2 of the Bill still halves the LCWRA (‘health’) element of universal credit from April
Specifically it cuts this element from April, for most new claimants, from £423 to £217 per month.

Massive cut for disabled people on the lowest incomes
Section 2 of the Bill still halves the LCWRA (‘health’) element of universal credit
Reposted by Carri Swann
I’m voting against disability benefit cuts because I oppose them, but the process by which this Bill is being rushed through without necessary information or adequate scrutiny, is reason enough for MPs to vote against it on Tuesday.

This is not how we should make laws.