CEO & founder of Resolve Poverty. @ResolvePoverty Working locally to end poverty nationally. UK @Acumen Fellow.
Manchester
Joined June 2011
- Tweets16K
- Following2.5K
- Followers2.8K
- Likes33K
Graham Whitham retweeted
Who in the name of all things holy decided that it’s imperative that we “get the welfare bill down?
The UK welfare bill is projected at £360+ billion (around 10.7% to 11% of GDP), remaining lower as a proportion of national income than it was 15 years ago or during the 1980s.
Graham Whitham retweeted
NOT BALLOONING!
Welfare spending amounted to just under 11% of GDP in the last financial year – up from 10.4% in 1996-97 but lower than the peak of 12.4% in 2009-10. In fact total non-pensioner benefits have hovered between 4% and 5% for more than 40 years
theweek.com/business/economy…
Graham Whitham retweeted
NEW: The chancellor missed an opportunity to bring down inflation in the budget.
Our analysis found that more ambitious cost of living measures could have quadrupled the impact of government inflation reduction.
ALT Chart comparing the impact of newly announced government policies on inflation in Q2 2027 with the impact of adding New Economics Foundation (NEF) policies. Current policies reduce inflation by around 0.22 percentage points. Adding NEF policies increases the reduction to around 0.88 percentage points, through an emergency rent brake, free bus travel for under-25s, a £1 bus fare cap, and the National Energy Guarantee, alongside the government’s fuel duty freeze and removal of VAT from energy bills. Source: NEF analysis.
Graham Whitham retweeted
🚨 BREAKING: Despite rising rents, the government has chosen not to end the freeze on housing support in today’s #Budget2026.
For years, rents have continued to rise but support hasn’t. As a result, too many people are being forced to decide between paying the rent and putting food on the table.
While the government's decision to provide more support with energy bills is positive, keeping housing support frozen means many will still struggle to afford the essentials.
The government wants to end the need for emergency food. It won't achieve that while housing support remains frozen.
This is so bloody depressing.
Where’s the accountability? How does the UK Treasury get away with getting so many things so badly wrong for so many years?
NEW
Britain’s missing sovereign wealth fund… Treasury officials have modelled that had the UK done what Norway did with North Sea revenues, there would be a £1 trillion fund…
As Chancellor sets up Energy Wealth Fund, a look at the long historical argument about where the oil windfall went, including from interviews with those who have run Norways $2.4 trillion fund, now the biggest in the world, filled from the proceeds of the same North Sea.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm4g…
Graham Whitham retweeted
So predictable. Whatever the idea or crisis - Thatcherism, neoliberalism, the Third Way, globalisation, debt, pandemic etc - the prescription is always go after the incomes of the poorest. Instead of radical change we get tinkering within a broken system
theguardian.com/society/2026…
If only someone had come up with a plan to increase rail capacity down the west side of the country 🤔
Bid to run new trains on West Coast Mainline refused bbc.in/4zlZ0KO
Graham Whitham retweeted
Exactly! Just look at the variance here in Leicester 👇
Anyone at £1.80 will now be under more pressure to cut prices. Smart measure to reduce costs by making markets better, not worse!
Where’s the accountability for the system in how it equips people into and to stay in work? Its the system that needs some tough love.
We do need “tough love” for young people on benefits, as @KemiBadenoch outlines in The @spectator today.
But we also need “tough love” for older people too considering the State Pension, the biggest benefit by a mile, cost over £141 billion in 2025-26 and will likely cost £154 billion in 2026-27.
The State Pension Age should be 70 asap. There are lots of jobs that older people can and do do.
The State Pension should also be means-tested. By doing this, you could enhance financial support for the poorest pensioners.
This will enable an intra-generational transfer among the luckiest and wealthiest generation in history to reduce pensioner poverty.
Me on @GBNEWS
So frustrating that yet again the public debate around this is focusing on how much £ people get on benefits and not on how crap the country is at equipping people to get into & stay in work.
This quoted post is unavailable.
Graham Whitham retweeted
No one should be condemned to a lifestyle that involves being unable to afford food, pay the bills or keep up with the rent.
Everyone should be able to afford essentials.
If you can work, you should.
Nobody should be able to live a lifestyle on benefits.
@Conservatives will make welfare fair to taxpayers and to those who work hard and do the right thing.
Graham Whitham retweeted
Sadly it's not what people believe.
There is a lot of hype about the UK social security spending.
The chart below shows Total UK social security spending as a percentage of GDP, 2013/14 to 2030/31 (spending and forecast)
55% goes to pensioners, the remainder covers everything else.
lordslibrary.parliament.uk/w…
Graham Whitham retweeted
The clamour for Labour to cut welfare is deafening.
This won’t make us more secure, help people into work or make real savings.
It’ll make people poorer and pile pressure onto services like the NHS - costing more in the long-run.
Cuts won’t create jobs. They create poverty.
Graham Whitham retweeted
The gap between rates of Local Housing Allowance and prevailing private rents is close to a record high.
Read how the government can fix it 👇️ buff.ly/tmfEAWh
ALT Chart showing gap between private rents and Local Housing Allowance, as a proportion of the LHA rate: Great Britain, April 2012 to March 2028 (projected from September 2026)
Graham Whitham retweeted
Universal Credit doesn't know the price of a milk. Or heating. Or the bus.
It doesn't cover the essentials, leaving millions with no option but to turn to a food bank.
✋ It's time we changed this. We're calling for Universal Credit to be set based on actual living costs.
ALT A graphic with photos of everyday essentials and text. The title reads 'Universal Credit
Graham Whitham retweeted
3 things to note on all the current tax debates:
1. Raising the income tax Personal Allowance does *not* benefit those on the lowest incomes most. It's people in the richest half of the country who mostly benefit.
(Although mainly middle earners rather than the very rich.)
Graham Whitham retweeted
For a country where food banks are still a thing, it’s a bit grim for #bbclaurak to push the tax complaints of a Monaco-based billionaire, concerns of high earners potentially being asked to pay slightly more tax & asking a journalist from a neoliberal publication to back her up
Graham Whitham retweeted
Jim Radcliffe grew up in a council house paid for by the state and went to a state school funded by public taxes.
Now he seems to think others don’t deserve the support he got. Why does he want even more money and to stop others having the opportunity to make any?
Graham Whitham retweeted
Jim Ratcliffe has lost confidence in the world’s 3rd largest innovation economy with two fifths of Europes high growth young companies. Ignorant and ill-informed this tax exile deserves no air time bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm04…
