Living standards Pre-pandemic Britain experienced a mini living standards boom – alongside rising child poverty New data show stronger growth in household incomes leading up to the Covid-19 crisis, but we need to look over a longer period for a more accurate impression 25 March 2021 by Karl Handscomb The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) today published statistics on household incomes and poverty covering 2019-20. Because producing these estimates is a time-consuming process – both for the households who are surveyed and the statisticians processing the data into interesting statistics – the results are already a year out of date, and tell us … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19 Any further questions? From The safety net in action? Universal Credit’s role in the crisis and the recovery 28 May 2020 by Mike Brewer and Karl Handscomb We often have more questions submitted for our event Q&A sessions than we’re able to answer. Where this is the case, we’ll endeavour to respond to a selection of the most interesting or most representative questions that went unanswered. The questions below were submitted to our panel for the event The safety net in action? … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Labour market Unprecedented support for employees’ wages last week has been followed up by equally significant, and even more generous, support for the self-employed. But gaps remain 27 March 2020 by Torsten Bell and Mike Brewer and Laura Gardiner and Karl Handscomb and Daniel Tomlinson Yesterday, the Chancellor announced that last week’s pledge to underwrite 80 per cent of the wages of employees without work to do during this crisis is being matched with significant grants to the self-employed. This is an important addition to existing plans to support employees, and in many ways a more generous offer. The Self-Employed … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Welfare Coronavirus and the benefits system: What support is available? 9 March 2020 by Karl Handscomb With the continuing increase in coronavirus cases, much of the current debate has rightly focused on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). The Government’s announcement to extend SSP to day one of absence is welcome, but low earners and the self-employed are not entitled to SSP. This poses a challenge for protecting family incomes from the spread … Continued READ MORE
