Tips and tutorials

What are benefit sanctions? Explainer

In October 2012 the government made the rules stricter for people out of work and claiming benefits. Since the new rules came into effect more people than ever before have been sanctioned. What does it mean if someone is ‘sanctioned’? Being sanctioned means your money is stopped. People out of work and looking for a job […]

How we did it: tracking overpayments to prisoners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Yesterday we reported on how prisoners in Northern Ireland were being paid  £1.94 million in benefits they were not entitled to. In this post Gesbeen Mohammad explains the background to the story. This story began when Help Me Investigate was approached by an individual who was confused by the contradiction between replies to two different Freedom of Information (FOI) requests: This request by […]

25 Twitter accounts to follow in 2014 on welfare reform – numbers 11-25

We’ve compiled a list of 25 useful Twitter accounts if you want to follow welfare reform. Yesterday we revealed the first 10 – here are the other 15… Follow them all – and over 40 others – as a list here. 11.Samuel Miller @Hephaestus7 Disability specialist Samuel Miller is taking the government to court in The […]

25 Twitter accounts to follow in 2014 on welfare reform – the first 10

We’ve compiled a list of 25 useful Twitter accounts if you want to follow welfare reform. In this post we reveal the first 10… Follow them all – and over 40 others – as a list here. How we did it: finding Twitter accounts to follow 1. Joseph Rowntree Fdn.  @jrf_uk,   @Helen_Barnard I shouldn’t have […]

5 ways to find Twitter accounts covering the welfare field (or any other)

We’ve been compiling a list of people on Twitter to follow on welfare-related issues. Here’s how we did it: (If you need to know how to create a Twitter list, see Twitter’s guide) 1. Search Twitter biographies only The quickest way to kick off your Twitter list is to search Twitter biographies for users who […]

How to keep track of welfare issues part 3: data and documents

In the first part of this series I looked at bringing general news sources and blogs into one place; in the second I looked at social media discussions. This final part looks at how to know what government departments are saying and doing, even if no one is reporting it. Data and documents provide some of […]

How to keep track of welfare issues part 2: case studies and context

In the first part of this series we looked at bringing general news sources and blogs into one place. In this part we look to another important source: social media discussions. Social media discussions contain three types of information: news updates you haven’t seen elsewhere; expertise (analysis and insights, for example); and personal experience (case studies). Here’s […]

How to compile a news feed on welfare issues (or any other) – part 1: what’s going on?

Earlier this week we published our list of 19 places to follow welfare developments. In the first of a three-part series, we explain how to get your own list of useful feeds into one page, and share it with others. Step 1: Use a ‘personalisable homepage’ news reader like Netvibes or Feedly There are a number of […]

19 places to get updates on welfare reform

If you want to keep track of what’s happening in welfare reform we’ve compiled this list of some of the most useful – and varied – sources on everything from the bedroom tax to child poverty. We’ve also put together a dashboard if you want to follow these on a single easy-to-check webpage. You can follow […]

How to find new leads in an old news report on empty property

Background material and general reporting on an area can often provide all sorts of clues and leads for further, deeper investigation. This piece from the Birmingham Mail is a particularly good example. On the surface it is a rather general report on an empty property in the city – but along the way it includes all sorts […]