Blog

Category: Living costs

What can the chancellor do to address the high costs of childcare?

Vidhya Alakeson

This piece first appeared on the Guardian's Comment is Free site.

Laura works 25 hours a week as an accounts administrator. After paying for childcare, she takes home only half of what she earns. This is an all too familiar picture for working families in Britain and, according to Monday's report by the Daycare Trust, things are getting worse. The average part-time nursery place for a child under two now costs more than £5,000 a year, and more like £6,500 in London. Lower income families feel particularly hard hit this year because of last year's cut to support for childcare costs, and will find themselves even worse off after this April's change to tax credits. Eligibility for working tax credits will be tied to working longer hours and that will mean paying for more childcare.

Childcare double whammy: help is cut as costs soar

Felicity Dennistoun

This post originally appeared on Left Foot Forward.

The survey (pdf) published yesterday by the Daycare Trust and Save the Children was a stark reminder of the soaring costs of childcare and the impact they are having on family budgets. Fifty eight per cent of parents in severe poverty said they were no better off working once they’d paid for childcare; 41% said they were considering giving up work due to the reduction of the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit.

Household finances are a ‘millstone’ around the neck of recovery

James Plunkett

This blog first appeared on Left Foot Forward

A new poll out today from the Resolution Foundation confirms the extent to which poor household finances are now exerting a downward pull on the UK economy. The poll, carried out for the Foundation by ipsos MORI, finds that almost half of all people on low-to-middle incomes now say have no cash left over at the end of each month. More than one in four say they don’t make any regular savings. The findings reveal in stark terms that millions of ordinary households – not the poorest, and the vast majority in work – are now living on the edge of their means.

When rates finally rise, things are set to get nasty

Gavin Kelly

This blog first appeared in the New Statesman.

A good recession followed by a bad recovery. Trite lines like this are often wide of the mark, but this one bears some truth. The fallout of the economic downturn over the last few years – though harsh - was less gruesome than first feared in terms of overall unemployment, bankruptcies and repossessions.

Britain’s Recovery Rests On The Shoulders Of Suburbia

James Plunkett

This blog first appeared in Business Insider

Enfield, North London is trademark British suburbia. Middle-income but with patches of poverty and patches of wealth, the high street is dominated by chain stores and a scattering of chain-owned pubs. On first sight, there are few signs here that the UK is recovering slowly from a deep recession. But look closer and things don’t look so good. The local council is one of many in Britain to adopt the policy of dressing up closed-down storefronts to resemble thriving local stores. With many of the facades now entering their third year, some are faded and peeling. On one, a scribble of graffiti backs the ‘BNP’, a far right fascist party.

The week when the numbers become reality

Gavin Kelly

With the Budget behind us and the new financial year starting on Wednesday, it is a timely moment to take stock of the prospects of those living on low-to-middle incomes. To do that we need to consider the combined impact of stagnant wages, rising prices, reduced tax-credits and benefits from the June 2010 Budget – as well as the measures that were announced in last month’s Budget (such as increased personal tax-allowances).

Digging beneath the figures on household disposable income

Lee Savage

Figures released earlier this week by the Office for National Statistics showed that total real disposable incomes have fallen in the UK for the first time in thirty years. But behind those headline figures, if we instead look at disposable income per head, there’s an interesting story about the performance of different regions across the country. In particular, strong growth in London is masking a much longer term squeeze in living standards in other areas – and one that long-predates the recession.

Tough news for living standards from the OBR

James Plunkett

Yesterday’s budget had been pre-billed as a boost to living standards, and in particular as targeting the ‘squeezed middle’. Of course, for most in the group this was always going to be small beer in comparison to the impacts from last year’s Spending Review and emergency budget. But overall, did yesterday bring good or bad news for low-to-middle earners?

Osborne has not solved the cost of living crisis

Gavin Kelly

This blog first appeared on the New Statesman.

Stand back from the detail of today's Budget and what we observe is Britain's political class trying – and failing – to respond to the crisis in living standards facing Britain.

They are doing this at the same time as they, of course, seek to outmanoeuvre their political opponents and build support among their friends. One manifestation of this will be the growing tussle over tax cuts, which will increasingly dominate party politics in the years ahead.