Lessons from America

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In the three months I’ve been working on low income households in the US, a wry smile and an emphatic “no” is the almost universal response I get to my question “does the US have any lessons for the UK?” It is certainly true that American safety nets, where they exist at all, are more … Continued

Plugging the gap in the rental market

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We may be out of recession but the housing market story continues to be one of doom and gloom. House prices continue to fall, the mortgage market continues to contract. While even deposit ready first-time buyers are struggling, the situation is exponentially worse for low-to-middle earners. With just 2 per cent of mortgages available at … Continued

Changing the conversation in 2012

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Low growth, high unemployment, deeper cuts, falling wages, and a further reduction in the living standards of working families. Just in case you were under any doubt, 2012 is going to feel like one long Groundhog Day, a darker version of its grim predecessor. There will, of course, be many new twists and turns. But … Continued

So who pays?

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Just in case you were under any doubt about where the burden of today’s widely expected cuts to tax credits will fall, the chart below should make it clear. Over 75 per cent of the pain of today’s changes to tax credits is felt by the bottom half of the income distribution. The vast majority … Continued

Are we facing an American nightmare?

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With the Chancellor’s autumn statement due next Tuesday, we’re all talking about growth. The ECB and Bank of England now say the UK economy is set to grow at less than half the rate the OBR forecast back in March. That makes it all but certain that George Osborne will announce dramatic downward revisions to UK forecasts when he stands up … Continued

Are we catching the US disease?

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In the 1970s, the policy and political elite obsessed about the ‘British disease’ — the failure of our system of industrial relations, and its impact on UK prosperity relative to our competitors, above all the US. Forty years on, their concern should be whether we have caught the ‘US disease’: the failure of the broad … Continued

Universal Credit: winners and losers

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Iain Duncan Smith has found an extra £300m for childcare in his Universal Credit, but women who want to work longer hours will lose out. The result is only going to make households worse offEarlier this month, the government announced the level of support that would be available for childcare under Universal Credit when it … Continued

Goodbye to the good life

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In the three months from July to September, Britain’s economy actually grew—by 0.5 per cent. That performance was less bad than many had feared, and some have seized on it as a source of hope. For Chancellor George Osborne it was a “positive step… laying the foundations for the future success of the country.” Even … Continued

Occupy the Bank

At last we are getting some hard-hitting ideas about how to reign in and reform free-booting finance capitalism. From those camped outside St Paul’s? A new left wing think-tank? Perhaps a leading financier gone-rogue in the manner of Soros or Buffett? No, nothing so predictable. The new ideas are flowing from that well known citadel … Continued

Obama: Mr 99%?

Just a bunch of ‘kids and kooks’ or the early and messy stirrings of a deeper shift in US politics? That’s the question pre-occupying US politicians and assorted commentators from left to right as the one month old occupation of Wall Street spreads to a growing number of cities. They call themselves the ‘99%’ – … Continued

Getting the measure of a better capitalism

Today the Institute for Fiscal Studies has launched an Exocet at the Coalition’s claims to be a one-nation government taking a lead on poverty reduction. Nearly all measures of poverty are set to rise over the next five to ten years and the Coalition’s policies are part of the cause.But underneath the headlines the IFS analysis serves … Continued

The coalition is actively increasing child poverty

As has been widely reported, new figures published today by the Institute for Fiscal Studies forecast that the number of children in poverty is set to rise. Specifically, child poverty will rise continually during the first half of this decade and stay at approximately the same level until 2020, when there will be over three million children … Continued

Child poverty: We need to rethink our 2020 target

This morning the IFS published its latest projections for poverty. The stats have been widely reported, with most coverage focusing on the ‘unprecedented’ seven percent squeeze on middle incomes. But perhaps the more surprising figures are those for long-term trends in child poverty. On our current path, 800,000 more children will fall into poverty by … Continued

Tories dodge a bullet on childcare

In the past year the government has proven good at cauterising self-inflicted wounds. This morning’s announcement from Iain Duncan Smith on childcare stems another potential bleeder. His department have found an extra £300m to prevent further cuts to childcare support. It’s a welcome reversal of an ill-advised plan and a narrowly averted political foul-up. The extra money … Continued

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