Richard Machin

Richard Machin is an Associate Professor in Social Policy at Nottingham Trent University, serving in the School of Social Sciences and the leadership team of the School of Social Work, Care and the Community. He is also a Nottingham Civic Exchange Policy Fellow and holds the Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Education & Career Path

• Over ten years managing Derby City Council’s Welfare Rights & Money Advice service.
• Former Course Leader, BA (Hons) Social Welfare Law, Policy and Advice Practice, Staffordshire University.
• Joined NTU in 2018 and currently teaches across BA/MA Social Work, BA Health & Social Care, MA Public Health and MSc Public Policy programmes.

Research Interests

Machin’s scholarship focuses on UK social security policy and practice, welfare reform, comparative social policy, multiple-exclusion homelessness and poverty. He interrogates how policy design, implementation and austerity measures affect vulnerable populations, particularly disabled people, refugees and low-income families, and he explores practical solutions through local-government innovation and third-sector collaboration.

Recent Publication Themes

Across 2020–2025 his work has mapped the COVID-19 shock to local welfare delivery, analysed the two-child benefit cap and PIP migration, evaluated Ukrainian-refugee housing & social-security access, documented warm-spaces provision as austerity localism, and developed debt-advice best practice for offenders. Collectively these studies chart the trajectory of welfare retrenchment, crisis response and grassroots innovation in the UK.

Honours & External Roles

• NTU Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
• Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
• Associate Editor, Journal of Poverty and Social Justice
• Freelance trainer, Child Poverty Action Group (Universal Credit)
• Management Committee, Church Action on Poverty
• Advisory Boards: Money Advice & Pensions Service Financial Wellbeing Forum; Trussell Trust Hunger in the UK research project
• Honorary Associate, Centre for Health and Development (CHAD), Staffordshire University

Collaborations & Funding

Active collaborations include the University of Bergen (Norway) and Yale University (USA). Grant details are not specified in the text, but multiple commissioned reports for the UK COVID-19 Inquiry, Academics Stand Against Poverty UK, CHAD and other bodies indicate sustained external funding.

Labs, Teams & Knowledge-Exchange

Machin leads knowledge-exchange initiatives through NTU’s Developing Academic Policy Engagement (DAPE) programme, contributes to the Institute for Knowledge Exchange Practice and mentors teaching-internship schemes within the School of Social Sciences.