NEW: The UK social security system offers relatively little income protection after job loss. THREAD on Martin Mikloš and @xiaoweixu_'s IFS Green Budget chapter on the options for introducing ‘unemployment insurance’:

How has UK defence spending changed in the past 80 years? @MaxWarnerIFS outlines how UK defence spending has declined as a share of GDP since WWII, but has increased since in real terms back to mid-1980s levels. 🎧 Listen here: https://t.co/TJGoJ0Rh4J

📗 Read Martin Mikloš and @xiaoweixu_'s IFS Green Budget chapter, funded by @NuffieldFound, on unemployment insurance here:

📈 #IFSSatStat: More than four in five current contributory benefit claimants have claimed for at least a year. This means if the new 'unemployment insurance' set to replace this system is restricted to a year, the vast majority of current claimants would no longer be eligible.

Looking forward to my first foray @theSNP party conference with @L__Macfarlane, Sara Cowan and @ShonaRobison. What is the financial situation facing Scotland? What is @scotgov's approach to tackling it? What about the role of technology and tax?

What it's hard to see from the outside of @TheIFS is how much we effort we put in to train up people to do economic research, who then go on to succeed long term at IFS and indeed elsewhere. Do spread the word, we're looking for great people to join.

'Overall we're slightly creaking at the seams.' @RUSI_org's @MTSavill explains that despite higher spending and strong support for Ukraine, the UK’s military still faces serious capability and readiness gaps. 🎧 Listen here: https://t.co/TJGoJ0Rh4J

🚨🚨🚨IFS is hiring! ✅Research economists - undergrad/masters/PhD ✅Post-docs ✅Summer students - for those still studying Come work on important economic policy issues with world class academic research - there's nowhere in the UK like it https://t.co/3csihVG8Sc

The government is talking up the importance of ‘contribution’ and is planning a new ‘Unemployment Insurance’ benefit. What might that mean in practice? Well, for one thing, it might save the Treasury a few billion… Some great new @TheIFS work, with summary thread, below:

NEW PODCAST: Should Labour scrap the two-child limit? This week @HelenMiller_IFS is joined by @TomWatersEcon and @ckfarquharson to examine the two-child limit: its history, its effects on children and poverty and the options for reform. 🎧 Listen here: https://t.co/kVFGPufSwc

EVENT: Tax options for a tight Budget Mon 13 Oct | 10:00 – 11:00 | Online 📅 Sign up for our IFS Green Budget event, funded by @Barclays & @NuffieldFound, on tax options still open to the Chancellor, how much they would raise and their economic merits https://t.co/Lx7g6k8nvM

'If the British army went to war now, the estimates are that it would fire all of its shells for artillery within a matter of days' @MTSavill describes the state of the British armed forces' stockpiles and the efforts to replenish them. 🎧 Listen here: https://t.co/TJGoJ0Rh4J

The coverage of the Conservatives' new SDLT policy - including just now on @BBCr4today - hasn't really discussed the implication of abolishing it only for primary residences. Here's a thread based on some analysis I did @theIFS on this proposal yesterday 🧵

A key point from us in this piece is that current NHS England measures of trust-level productivity only tell us about changes in productivity. What we probably care more about is differences in productivity levels, i.e. is one trust more productive than another?

Over an hour of discussion about the public finances, state of the country and... lots of tax chat. What's not to love !

This article from our brilliant @BenZaranko is worth a read- a reminder that a productivity downgrade is not a surprise Also - I learned that Brits love hedgehogs. No one will love the productivity hedgehog

@xiaoweixu_ “It is high time contributory benefits in the UK were modernised.” Read the full IFS Green Budget chapter, funded by @NuffieldFound, here: https://t.co/t4IOpQdQR1

@xiaoweixu_ Those with long-term health conditions stand to lose out from the reform, though low-income people could continue to get the same amount through universal credit.   Transitional protections may be required for the 0.7 million NS ESA claimants who have claimed for at least a year.

@xiaoweixu_ 53% of those who become unemployed or long-term sick find another job within 12 months, though long-term sickness is much more persistent than unemployment.

@xiaoweixu_ Time-limiting the new UI benefit would likely to result in fiscal savings that far outstrip the cost of higher benefit levels or extending the benefit to the self-employed. A 12-month UI could save around £2 billion a year once transitional protections are exhausted.

@xiaoweixu_ NS ESA is available indefinitely for most claimants.     Because rates for most NS ESA claimants are higher than for NS JSA, spending is even more skewed towards long-term claims, with 88% of current NS spending going towards claims lasting at least a year.