Publication
2015 - The living standards election?
Date: 29 April 2013
The electorate is broadly split over whether, come the next general election, it will still be possible for the government of the day to ensure steadily rising living standards. This analysis, “2015- the living standards election?”, gives a unique insight into what voters think that politicians can – and can’t – promise to achieve at the next election.
Sizing the UK ‘Jobs Gap’
Date: 12 March 2013
Author: James Plunkett
The UK is more than 800,000 jobs short of the amount it would need to restore employment rates to those seen before the recession, a study from independent think tank the Resolution Foundation has found.
While the number of people in employment had climbed by 160,000 since 2008 to nearly 30 million, this positive news has masked the fact that the country’s adult population has grown faster over the same period – by 1.7 million.
Resolution Foundation Autumn Statement 2012 Analysis
7 December 2012
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Resolution Foundation analysis of the 2012 Autumn Statement
Date: 7 December 2012
Author: Matthew Whittaker
In our initial response to the Autumn Statement, we focused on the historic decision to remove the link between working-age benefits and prices and to instead raise a majority of working-age benefits and tax credits by just 1 per cent a year for three years from 2013, pointing out that 60 per cent of the £3.7 billion cut would fall on in-work households.
In this note we look in more detail at the distributional impact of this welfare cut, in combination with the decision to increase the personal tax allowance by a further £235 in April 2013 and the announcement that the higher rate threshold would increase by 1 per cent a year from April 2014. Having considered this latest ‘fiscal squeeze’, we turn to consider what the OBR’s updated projections for earnings and inflation mean for the ‘wage squeeze’. Finally, we consider the longer-term consequences of these two effects for a series of stylised families.
Gaining from growth: The final report of the Commission on Living Standards
30 October 2012
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Gaining from growth: The final report of the Commission on Living Standards
Date: 31 October 2012
Author: James Plunkett
Millions of households are heading for a long period of stagnant living standards unless bold steps are taken to ensure that growth over the next decade is broadly shared. Even with a return to steady growth, it’s now entirely possible living standards for a large swath of low and middle households will be no higher by 2020 than they were in 2000. Yet actions can be taken to alter this course.
The findings are contained in the final report of the Commission on Living Standards, a broad group of leading employers, trade unionists, economists and heads of parents’ groups brought together by the Resolution Foundation. The report sets out for the first time the full explanation for the challenge now facing low to middle income households, the risk that the benefits of a period of growth could bypass millions of working households, and key recommendations on how to avoid this.
Conditions Uncertain
Date: 5 October 2012
Author: Matthew Pennycook and Matthew Whittaker
Conditions Uncertain finds that almost 1.2 million low-paid workers entitled to support under Universal Credit will have to look for extra work or face the risk of having payments withdrawn. The report reveals for the first time how many working people are likely to be affected by a new regime which will require the lowest-paid to show that they are unable to push up their wages any further.
Who Gains from Growth? Living Standards to 2020
Date: 23 September 2012
Author: Institute for Employment Research and Institute for Fiscal Studies
Living standards for Britain’s low and middle income households will be lower in 2020 than they were a decade earlier even if growth returns. Households in this group are set for income falls of between 3 and 15 percent from 2008 to 2020. Who Gains from Growth? examines the changing structure of the UK jobs market in tandem with the effects of the tax and benefit system. It produces the most sophisticated modelling yet of the prospects for low to middle income households in the recovery.
What a drag: The chilling impact of unemployment on real wages
19 September 2012
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What a drag: The chilling impact of unemployment on real wages
Date: 19 September 2012
Author: Paul Gregg and Stephen Machin
Real wage growth in the UK labour market, since around 2003, has slowed down and stagnated. This report documents the nature of real wage changes across the wage distribution over the last three decades. The report explores whether unemployment has become a stronger moderating influence on real wage growthin recent years.
Shrinking Support: what Universal Credit indexation means for living standards
11 September 2012
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Shrinking Support: what Universal Credit indexation means for living standards
Date: 11 September 2012
Author: Matthew Whittaker
In Budget 2010, the Chancellor announced that the uprating of benefits, tax credits and public service pensions would, from April 2011, be made with reference to the typically lower Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Prices Index (RPI). In this note, we consider the merits of the case set out by the government, before considering the distributional impact of the shift with specific reference to the forthcoming system of Universal Credit.
Unfinished Business: Barriers and opportunities for older workers
Date: 8 August 2012
Author: Giselle Cory
The UK could miss a historic opportunity to boost employment among the over 50s. This new analysis finds that the UK ranks 15th out of 34 OECD countries, for older workers, lagging the five top countries by over fifteen percentage points. Closing this gap would mean around 1.5 million more people in work.
Fairer by design: efficient tax reform for those on low to middle incomes
Date: 31 July 2012
Author: Paul Johnson
The current system of redistribution through taxation and welfare is inefficient and could be reformed to give more support to those on low and middle incomes whilst reducing economic costs according to a new report for the Resolution Foundation Commission on Living Standards.
2012 2013 2020 activity rate Anna Vignoles April arrears Audit autumn statement balance benefit system benefits borrowing Britain budget budget 2011 budget response business case business impact cchpr child outcomes childcare Clive Cowdery Commission Commission on Living Standards conditionality cost of living wage council tax council tax benefit creditworthy david willetts Debt debt forgivenes debt target degree demographics discussion paper distribution donal hirsch earnings economic economy education election elizabeth washbrook emergency budget employment employment rate evidence expert group families family female employment finance financial advice financial capability financial health financial services financial services industry forbearance Gavin Kelly GDP gearing generation rent government Green Paper gregg growth growth without gain growth. niesr HM Treasury consultation holmes hourglass House of Commons House of Lords household debt household income Housing IFS in-work income inequality institutional investment interest rates international James Plunkett jane waldfogel jobs jobs gap John Van Reenen jonathan portes labour market labour share lane kenworthy lee savage letting agents Liam Wren-Lewis living standards living wage LMIs long-term care Louisa Darian low earner constituencies Low earners low earners audit low income low pay Low Pay Britain low pay threshold low to middle income low wages low-to-middle earners machin macro economic matthew pennycook Matthew Whittaker mayhew Mike Brewer minimum wage missing million missing out mobility mortgages mothers MPs mum netmums non-employment rate OECD older on your marks Parliamentary briefing part time Pensions Bill Pensions White Paper personal allowance peter williams plan c polarisation Policy Press polling population poverty pre-budget report private rented sector productivity projections property assets public sector deficit recession reform rent renting Resolution Foundation Resolution Foundation briefing response routine jobs sanctions sector share shelter skills social social care market social mobility social mobility foundation Sophia Parker squeezed Squeezed Britain Squeezed Middle submission survey sutton trust tax tax credits tax cuts tenure The squeezed middle think tank think-tank Thoresen Review Transact Treasury Select Committee unemployment Universal Credit Vidhya Alakeson wage bill wage share wages welfare reform welfare state White Paper who gains from growth women Work Work and Pensions Select Committee work incentives work-life workers workforce
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