@Alex__Collinson profile picture
Alex Collinson @Alex__Collinson

Analysis and Research Officer at @The_TUC. (All views my own)

Joined June 2017
  • Tweets 8,142
  • Following 1,200
  • Followers 2,240
1,574 Photos and videos
Mostly now doing the usual combo of labour market charts & inane posts on the other site under alexcollinson
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New ASHE data published today. Collected each April, it's the UK's most comprehensive pay data set. This year's reiterates how awful the tory government's record on pay growth was. Between 2010-2024, annual real wage growth averaged just 0.3%. Pre-2010, it averaged 1.5%.
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Difficult to underplay just how bad the previous tory government's pay record is. Annual real wage growth averaged just 0.3% across their 14 years in power. According to historical estimates, this makes them the worst government for pay growth since the 1920s.
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The tories were in power for 14 years but left office with real pay only slightly higher than when they entered it. They not only failed to address the post-financial crisis pay squeeze, but actively worsened it with policies like public sector pay freezes.
chart showing real median weekly earnings from 1997 to 2024, based on latest ASHE data. Weekly pay grew, on average, by 1.5% per year before 2010 and by 0.3% per year after.

ALT chart showing real median weekly earnings from 1997 to 2024, based on latest ASHE data. Weekly pay grew, on average, by 1.5% per year before 2010 and by 0.3% per year after.
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They’re security tagging the olive oil.
Photo of security tagged olive oil.

ALT Photo of security tagged olive oil.

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I need Wallace to let people know where he's getting these off-white knitted shirts from.
Netflix
@netflix
16 Oct 2024
Wallace is in trouble. Who could possibly be behind all this?! Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl premieres January 3.
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Alex Collinson retweeted
Tom Pollard@PollardTom
13 Oct 2024
The most striking aspect of these findings, beyond the sheer hardship people are enduring, is that inadequate benefits, rather than 'incentivising' people, fundamentally constrain their ability to overcome challenges & improve their circumstances theguardian.com/society/2024…

Two-thirds of UK benefits claimants with debts ‘have gone without food’

Damning figures revealed in DWP report, which Labour says was suppressed by the previous government

theguardian.com
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A lot in these. Looking at the one on benefits and debt: DWP's own research shows that people on Universal Credit are, on average, in four different types of debt. And the majority (60%) are behind, or have recently been behind, on housing costs. Same percentage for council tax.
Tom Pollard@PollardTom
7 Oct 2024
A quick heads-up to DWP wonks that a huge tranche of almost 30 research reports has been published today (presumably held back under the previous government?) covering Universal Credit, childcare, disability & pensions - lots of interesting stuff in there gov.uk/search/research-and-s…
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From the DWP research into Universal Credit and childcare: Childcare is the biggest barrier to work that parents on Universal Credit face. 61% say childcare makes it difficult to get into work or increase their earnings, rising to 74% of parents of pre-school age children
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Alex Collinson retweeted
Trades Union Congress
@The_TUC
7 Oct 2024
Our sick pay system is broken... And we need decent sick pay for all in the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill. The UK’s statutory sick pay the worst in the OECD - only 18% of the average weekly wage. ❌ Only 54% get full pay ❌ 28% get SSP ❌ 10% get nothing We call for: ✅ SSP available for all ✅ Remove 3 day wait for payment ✅ Increase SSP
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As ever, it's worth noting that there's a big class divide when it comes to sick pay. If you're in well-paid work, you very likely get paid as usual when ill. If you're in low-paid or insecure work, you're much more likely to be reliant on statutory sick pay or nothing at all.
chart showing results of nationally representative survey conducted by BritainThinks on behalf of the TUC in May 2022. It found that around half of employees (54 per cent) get their full pay as usual, with 28 per cent reliant on SSP and 1-in-10 getting nothing at all. A small percentage get somewhere between the legal minimum and their full pay as usual. There’s a class divide when it comes to who gets what. 80 per cent of high earners (over £50,000 a year) get full pay when off sick, compared to a third of low earners (less than £15,000). Just under half of people in insecure work getting nothing when off sick, compared to 6% of people in secure work.

ALT chart showing results of nationally representative survey conducted by BritainThinks on behalf of the TUC in May 2022. It found that around half of employees (54 per cent) get their full pay as usual, with 28 per cent reliant on SSP and 1-in-10 getting nothing at all. A small percentage get somewhere between the legal minimum and their full pay as usual. There’s a class divide when it comes to who gets what. 80 per cent of high earners (over £50,000 a year) get full pay when off sick, compared to a third of low earners (less than £15,000). Just under half of people in insecure work getting nothing when off sick, compared to 6% of people in secure work.
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Get the vibe that the snowman has been reading a lot of the menswear guy’s tweets.
The snowman from the book the snowman, when he’s in the dads clothes.

ALT The snowman from the book the snowman, when he’s in the dads clothes.

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Alex Collinson retweeted
Frances Ryan@DrFrancesRyan
4 Oct 2024
“The Gaza war is a mass disabling event, where the casualties are not only those who die but those who survive.” One year on, I wrote about a hidden horror: the plight of disabled Palestinians - and the tens of thousands of civilians maimed by Israel. theguardian.com/commentisfre…

Disabled Palestinians are facing horrors piled upon horrors. I think of their suffering every day |...

With every bombing, more people are left to survive without the devices and medications they need, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

theguardian.com
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Live in London but all my family in the north west. Used to be kinda affordable to visit for the weekend. Now it's expensive even when booking way in advance and using a day's annual leave to avoid travelling at weekend/during rush hour. Train itself often delayed or cancelled.
This tweet is unavailable
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Pitchfork best hundred songs of the decade so far has missed off the actual best song (remembering the 2007 Groove Armada single Song 4 Mutya exists and listening to that instead of anything new).
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Average private rents up 17% in space of just two years. They're up 20% in Scotland and London, but big rises across UK. Average rent on a two-bed in London now over £2,000 a month.
Chart showing percentage change in average private rents over past two years. Scotland: 20%, London: 20%, North West: 18%, Wales: 17%, West Midlands: 17%, UK: 17%, East Midlands: 16%, South East: 15%, Yorkshire and The Humber: 14%, South West: 14%, East: 14%, North East: 13%.

ALT Chart showing percentage change in average private rents over past two years. Scotland: 20%, London: 20%, North West: 18%, Wales: 17%, West Midlands: 17%, UK: 17%, East Midlands: 16%, South East: 15%, Yorkshire and The Humber: 14%, South West: 14%, East: 14%, North East: 13%.
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By our measure, real average weekly earnings now back to 2008 levels (their pre-financial crisis peak). If real wages had instead grown at the pre-crisis rate across these 16 years, they'd now be £293 per week higher. A disastrous period for pay growth.
Chart showing real average weekly wages since 2000, the 2008 level, and a forecast of where wages would be if they'd grown at pre-2008 rates.

ALT Chart showing real average weekly wages since 2000, the 2008 level, and a forecast of where wages would be if they'd grown at pre-2008 rates.

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Alex Collinson retweeted
Trades Union Congress
@The_TUC
4 Sep 2024
BREAKING | The final report from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry has been published. It makes clear - beyond doubt - that an agenda of deregulation cost lives. We send our solidarity and love to the bereaved, survivors and residents. And we echo the calls, of the @fbunational and others, for justice for all those killed in this horrific event.
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A horrible stat. And very much the intent of universal credit. A set of ideological reforms to shrink the welfare system and get individuals and voluntary organisations to plug the gaps. David Cameron even referred to food banks as part of his idea of "the Big Society".
Trussell
@TrussellUK
4 Sep 2024
❗️ ICYMI: 1.6 MILLION people claiming Universal Credit have needed to use a food bank in the last 12 months.
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The local tesco has moved baked beans from the tinned vegetables aisle (their natural home) to the baking aisle. It makes no sense. Yes, they're nearer their friends the eggs, but they have no business being so close to the flour or the marzipan.
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