It has been horrifying watching a decade of the UK undoing its own progress and returning to the 1930s. Being destitute and in poverty leaves two kinds of scars. The first are those of everyday struggle. The second the insecurity and missed opportunity that lasts a lifetime. https://twitter.com/jrf_uk/status/1336566312835952640

'Balancing the nation's books' has just meant transferring pain to those with least economic control. In effect, it's been poorer people subsiding the opportunities of those richer, not the other way round. Your freedom of choice has rested on removing choice from others

Social security is just that: provision of security within society. It's not welfare. It's not charity. It's what a country does to make sure everyone has what they need to be part of society. Social security isn't about teaching moral lessons, it's about keeping society together

We spend ridiculous amounts of time hand wringing about 'the divided times' we live in and 'loss of community'. Lots of papers. books, conferences and lovely photo opps in front of smiling poor people. We are letting society fall apart by making it a series of traps to fall into

What can you say about opportunity and the future to someone who is freezing and can't eat if their kids eat? What can you say about mobility to someone who knows you can tell they are poor? In the UK, making people poor robs people of dignity, then we say 'can't be helped, eh?'

Lack of spending on social security just makes people's lives a series of choices where there are no good endings, just marginally less awful ones. It's easy to talk about agency, aspiration and broader horizons in a warm room with a full belly know tomorrow you'll have the same