Author: Peter Matthews

Let’s talk about sex

We are now, after some delays, moving towards the end of this amazing project. For a project about sexual identity, we have not actually talked at all about sex at all. This is understandable from the perspective of the research design – we were interesting in LGBT+ identities. Sex is only one tiny part of

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Pride month – making social security better for LGBT+ people

This research project finds itself in another Pride Month. The project is now extended until December 2024 due to issues outside our control, but this is giving us more time to start thinking about how our findings might help improve the situation for LGBT+ people accessing social security and also accumulating assets over their lives. 

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Revisiting homophobia, biphobia and transphobia analysis in the welfare system

17th May is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). Last year I outlined some emerging analysis which highlighted experiences of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia within the social security system. A year on, with our analysis of the system complete, we can revisit this analysis and offer greater insights. Depressingly, at the time of

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A very specific call for participants

We have a lot of fun in the meetings for this project. Among the qualitative research work package, we all identify as LGBT+. El, who leads the work is a lesbian and Peter and Lee are gay men. We often laugh at how we reflect the stereotypes that we all share in the LGBT+ community.

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Bisexuals and welfare services – managing visibility

As a non-heterosexual, or non-cisgender person you are endlessly “coming out” – making what would be invisible, visible by saying who you are. You are endlessly making the subtle judgment of “is this place ok?” or “are these people ok?”; “will they kill me?” It gets a bit tiring. It’s a tricky thing for this

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Just not fitting

Today is the last day of non-binary awareness week. In this project, one thing we’re very interested in is how the everyday categories of the welfare system that have been designed by heterosexuals align with queer lives. It probably will not surprise you to learn that UK welfare bureaucracy really does not seem to be

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Pride in data!

The blog for the project has been quieter than we might have wanted this Pride Month. This is partly to work and life things getting in the way. The other bigger challenge, that we have to be honest about (and our funders are well aware of this!) is data access issues. The issue is sexual

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Why disability benefits are a bisexual issue

The Big Issue have reported today on statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions that show it is rejecting 89 per cent of the appeals for Personal Independence Payment that are brought through the mandatory reconsideration process. This has increased from 40 per cent in 2021. Mandatory reconsideration is the process by which claimants

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Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in the welfare system

This post is written by team member Dr Lee Gregory. International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) is held on the 17th May and is an opportunity to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ rights violations and promote the work to improve the rights of LGBTQ+ people. Reflecting at this time on emerging insights from our

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