Our history

The Commission on Social Security was set up in May 2019. The Commission is the result of lots of different conversations between lots of different people over a long period of time. Those conversations revolved around a number of recurring themes:

(i) the current social security (welfare benefits) system is failing, but here is no agreement on ways forward;

(ii) ideas for a better social system need to be set out (i.e. a solutions-focused approach);

(iii) Experts by Experience must be central in policy development and building consensus is vital.

Things came together in 2018 when Trust for London agreed to fund a project to set out proposals for a better social security system in the form of a ‘White Paper’, with Experts by Experience to take a central role, using a consensus-building approach.

The initial project team included Ellen Clifford (then at Inclusion London), Michael Orton (University of Warwick) and Nick Phillips (London Unemployed Strategies). In order to ensure the work not only involves Experts by Experience but is led by them, a Project Inception group was formed. This comprised of Ellen Clifford and Nick Phillips, six other Experts by Experience (3 each from Ellen and Nick’s respective networks), Michael Orton as Secretary and Austin Taylor-Laybourn as Trust for London observer (10 people in total).

The Project Inception group made decisions about how the project would proceed including: a Commission of Inquiry model would be used; all Commissioners would be Experts by Experience; a support team (secretariat), working under the direction of the Commissioners, would be set up. Through the Project Inception group’s networks 16 Commissioners, became involved from a variety of claimant and user-led groups and Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations.

How we work

The Commission is ground breaking in many ways. It involves a radical inversion of standard power relations – the Experts by Experience are the decision makers and the support team work as directed by them. The working methodology that has evolved is:

(i) Commissioners decide the strategy

(ii) The support team prepare briefings containing possible – but not exclusive – options

(iii) The Commissioners then decide how to proceed

The Commission takes a one step at a time approach, enabling process and practice to develop on an organic and reflective way.

It is notable that Commissioners as Experts by Experience cut through organisational and interest group silos and fragmented debates about poverty, instead providing a holistic perspective, with an ability to focus on fundamental core issues and anchored in lived experience of the system.