The Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) exists to provide impartial advice to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the wider ministerial team on the social security system. As part of our independent work programme we have just …
I’ve been a member of the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) for around ten years, having previously been a policy director in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Last week I was pleased to see that DWP had agreed …
I grew up in a first-generation immigrant household, and having experiences of homelessness and disability within our family, we were supported by social security benefits which provided a stepping stone out of poverty, but also demonstrated to me some of …
I never had a misspent youth. As a student I spent my Saturday mornings volunteering on a Durham market stall containing (then) DHSS[1] leaflets, answering basic queries and offering appointments for more complex issues. Not knowing what I wanted to …
“If at first you don’t succeed…” I first applied to join the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) just after my 6th child was born. I was previously a Senior Civil Servant in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and worked on …
A bit of a benefits nerd, I’ve been in welfare rights pretty much all my working life. I started as an adviser - first at Citizens Advice in London, moving on to Springfield psychiatric hospital and then Bristol City Council …