UK Poverty 2024 launch webinar

Mubin is the Chief Executive of the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, which funds a range of research and policy work to improve living standards and tackle financial problems. Prior to this role he was the Director of Policy and Grants at Trust for London. Mubin is currently a trustee of GambleAware and a member of the Minimum Income Guarantee expert group in Scotland. Previously he was Chair of London Funders and a member of the London Strategic Migration Partnership and the Homelessness Transition Fund. 

Paul started JRF and JRHT in September 2020, and was previously a Director General in the UK Government working on the national response to the COVID-19 crisis. He has held Director General roles at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Education. He was Deputy Chief Executive for Policy and Organisational Strategy at the Ministry for Children in New Zealand. Paul has also held senior roles at HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, and a local authority. He has worked throughout his career on economic and social policy issues and public service reform. 

Sir Stephen Timms, knighted in 2022, has been Labour Member of Parliament for East Ham since 1994, and Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee since 2020.  He has been the Labour Party’s Faith Envoy since 2007, and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society since 2012.  He was a Minister in the Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1998 to 2010, including serving in the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2006-7, and was Shadow Minister for Employment in 2010 to 2015.  He studied Mathematics at Cambridge University, worked in the computing industry from 1978 to 1994 and was a member of Newham Council for 10 years before his election to Parliament, including serving as Leader of the Council in 1990-94. He is one of the leaders of Plaistow Christian Fellowship. 

Peter is the Chief Analyst at JRF. Previously, Peter worked for almost 20 years in the Civil Service. He led on several issues at the Department of Work and Pensions, including poverty analysis, policies, and developing measures for persistent poverty and child poverty. Peter worked on fuel poverty and energy price analysis and is interested in all elements of poverty measurement. He’s passionate about making sure analysis has impact. He oversees JRF's monitoring strategy and research reports. 

Isabel is one of JRF's analysis managers and leads on quantitative analysis for a range of projects, with a particular focus on poverty and deep poverty across the UK. In 2022, Isabel worked for the National Centre for Social Research, having previously worked for the Labour Party and the polling company Survation. She has a PhD from the University of Nottingham where she focused on the causes and consequences of political trust, including its impact on public support for redistribution. 

Helen is Director of Policy, Research and Impact at the Trussell Trust. Previously, she was Associate Director at JRF, and Research and Policy Director at Pro Bono Economics. She is a leading national expert on poverty, inequality and social policy. Her extensive body of written work and regular media contributions have covered poverty, destitution, labour markets, housing and social security. She is a Social Metrics Commissioner and member of the Poverty Strategy Commission. 

Shirley is an anti-poverty campaigner with lived experience. She is a member of JRF’s Grassroots Poverty Action Group (GPAG). Shirley has previously been an ambassador for Fair by Design and Gingerbread and worked closely with Frameworks UK and JRF on the ‘Talking about Poverty’ toolkit. She is also a former Registered General Nurse in the NHS. She is a disabled Lone Parent & Carer.  

Philippa Stroud is a Conservative peer, and co-founder and CEO of ARC, Chair of the Social Metrics Commission and co-founder of leadership network, Forum. Previously, Philippa was CEO of the Legatum Institute and chief executive for the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a think tank that she co-founded in 2004. Prior to the CSJ, she was Special Adviser to the Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP (then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) from 2010-15, and to the Prime Minister from 2012. Philippa founded and directed a 4-stage project that enabled homeless people to move into independent living before she moved to Birmingham in 2000 and became Executive Director of the Bridge Project, a voluntary sector project that provided supported accommodation for homeless men and women. 

Ruth Lister CBE, FBA, FAcSS is a Labour peer and Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University, Vice Chair of Compass and on the board of the High Pay Centre. Ruth works on asylum and refugee issues in the Lords and is joint chair of the APPG on Poverty. She is a former Director of Child Poverty Action Group and is now its Honorary President. She is chair of the management committee of the pressure group Compass and on the board of the Smith Institute.  She served on the Commission on Social Justice, the Opsahl Commission into the Future of Northern Ireland, the Commission on Poverty, Participation and Power, the Fabian Commission on Life Chances and Child Poverty and the National Equality Panel. She was a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights 2012-15. She has published widely in the areas of citizenship (particularly in relation to women and children & young people), poverty and social security.