Analysis and action on living standards
Step into the Chancellor’s shoes and devise your Budget plan. This new Financial Times game uses economic modelling by the Resolution Foundation to let you play as the Chancellor.
Painful post-election Budgets are a time-honoured tradition in Britain, and the new Government’s upcoming fiscal event will be no exception, with the PM and Chancellor already warning of tough decisions being made. Expectations are being set for higher taxes, higher borrowing or lower spending – or perhaps a combination of all three.
The Resolution Foundation is an independent think-tank focused on improving living standards for those on low-to-middle incomes. We work across a wide range of economic and social policy areas, combining our core purpose with a commitment to analytical rigour.
In this briefing note, we put the big decisions faced by Chancellor in the new Government’s pivotal first Budget into context, discussing the new – and old – spending pressures faced, how the economic outlook has changed, and what all means for the public finances.
If the Government goes ahead with changes to the Work Capability Assessment – the gateway to accessing Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit on the grounds of ill-health – currently planned to begin from April 2025, it would mean around 450,000 people whose health prevents them from working seeing a cut in benefits of up to £4,900 a year, leading to a saving of £1.3 billion to the Exchequer by 2028-29.
The Resolution Foundation calculates the real Living Wage – a voluntary hourly pay rate that is based on what families need to get by. The current national rate is:
Resolution Ventures exists to back innovative start-ups seeking to change the world of work for the better and early-stage ventures seeking to improve the prospects of low-to-middle income Britain.
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