Welfare Universal Credit: the honesty we owe and the changes we need 12 October 2018 by Torsten Bell and Resolution Foundation Analysis All is not well in the land of Universal Credit (UC). Cabinet ministers are angsting in private about the challenges of rolling out this government’s single biggest domestic policy reform. Two ex-Prime Ministers are worrying in public that the benefit risks becoming a new poll tax. And Labour has (rhetorically at least) promised to scrap … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Conservative Party conference special: Fighting non-Brexit battles on multiple fronts Top of the Charts 28 September 2018 Afternoon all, Labour conference and their Brexit bun fight* is done. Luckily nothing like that is going to happen when the Conservatives gather in Birmingham this weekend. They don’t call Boris Johnson a backstabber team player for nothing… More interesting in Liverpool than Labour’s Brexit shuffle was the extra detail of and focus on the Party’s plan for economic … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public spending· Economy and public finances Five charts to chill the Chancellor’s blood ahead of the Budget 28 September 2018 by Matthew Whittaker We now know that this year’s Budget will be delivered on 29 October, making it the first Monday Budget since 1962. The traditional Wednesday has been avoided, we’re told, to side-step negative Halloween-based headlines. Yet there’s still plenty of scary stuff for the Chancellor to deal with – from finding the £20 billion needed to … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Did you feel happy yesterday? Broadening the measurement of living standards 26 September 2018 by George Bangham Today the ONS released their latest statistics on well-being in the UK, as they have done since 2011. These stats have their sceptics, both over the maths involved and over the very idea you can measure happiness over time (let alone orient policy towards it). But they matter: self-assessed well-being gives us an insight into … Continued READ MORE
Demographics· Intergenerational Centre· Political parties and elections Demography is the new class war 21 September 2018 by Torsten Bell The real question about this year’s Labour Party conference is what on earth everyone will talk about for four days. The supposed Brexit barney will be a damp squib and leadership rows have disappeared. So here’s a suggestion to fill the awkward silences: it’s time Labour talked about the arrival of generational divides in our … Continued READ MORE
Labour Party Conference special: Fully automated luxury communism Top of the Charts 21 September 2018 Afternoon all, I have the absolute pleasure of spending large parts of this weekend and the next fortnight up in Liverpool and Birmingham for the main party conferences – and don’t think I’m just going to suffer alone. Oh no, when it comes to the state of British politics we are all in this together. … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Skills Alternative paths to success? The jobs landscape facing young non-graduates today 18 September 2018 by Conor D’Arcy and Kathleen Henehan From photos of jumping A level students to guides to freshers’ week, at this time of year it can feel like university is the only route taken by teenagers. But in fact, fewer than half of young people follow this seemingly well-trodden path at 18. And, as this morning’s ONS publication about non-graduates’ employment patterns … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Intergenerational Centre Welcome to adulthood, millennial 13 September 2018 by Laura Gardiner 2018 is the year in which the babies of the millennium reach adulthood. Back in January, this was mainly marked by existential online angst about how those born when Britney Spears’s ‘Oops!… I Did It Again’ was in the charts are reaching legal drinking age. Today’s 18 in 2018 publication from the Office for National … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay Labour market statistics analysis: a tepid pay recovery is emerging 11 September 2018 by George Bangham The monthly labour market stats have followed a similar pattern for a while now; new employment records set, while pay continues to stagnate. Today’s figures haven’t quite followed the script. Take pay growth first. Nominal wage growth has nudged up to 2.9 per cent for only the second time since mid-2015, with real pay growth … Continued READ MORE
Bad Policies And The Benefits For Working In Berlin Over Boston Top of the Charts 7 September 2018 Afternoon all, It’s been an emotional week – separation anxiety, tears, tantrums and every parent’s worst fear – bullying in the playground. Yes, it’s been an emotional return to Westminster for our elected officials, and the school run’s back too. One of the features of modern politics is lots of depression about the inability for any … Continued READ MORE
Inequality & poverty· Wealth & assets· Cities and regions Regional wealth inequality: a nation divided 1 September 2018 by Conor D’Arcy On Monday, families across the country will be feeling a mix of excitement, anxiety and relief as kids go back to school (with Scotland having already gone through it). Experiences that unite every corner of the UK feel rarer these days, with talk of division and left-behind places common. Differences between South Shields and South … Continued READ MORE
Booze, sexists and massive misperceptions Top of the Charts 31 August 2018 Afternoon all, Welcome back to Top of the Charts – hope everyone’s had a good August and holidays/empty offices have refreshed reading appetites. I’ve enjoyed a glamorous drizzly break in Cornwall – the drizzle part of which I hold each and every one of you who moaned about the heatwave personally responsible. To cope with … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Tax Entrepreneurs’ Relief has cost £22 billion over the past 10 years. Was it worth it? 29 August 2018 by Adam Corlett The hunt is on for extra tax revenues. First came the announcement of an NHS funding boost, back in June. Now, the Chancellor has the harder task of working out where he will find the more than £20 billion required. Some is likely to come from higher borrowing, and better than expected public finance figures … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Skills The apprenticeship levy a year on: lessons learned 23 August 2018 by Kathleen Henehan This piece originally appeared on tes. With today’s headlines focused on the trials and tribulations of A-level results and university acceptances, you’d be forgiven for thinking that a majority of today’s 18-year-olds proceed directly from the school gates into the halls of higher education. Of course, they do not: over half of today’s 19-year-olds are engaged … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay· Skills Employers are offering a growing ‘disloyalty bonus’ – young people should take advantage 2 August 2018 by Stephen Clarke This piece was first published on i. First they took away the long-service awards: carriage clocks and gold watches; now they’re coming for your pay rises; loyalty no longer pays in UK firms. That’s the big takeaway from new Resolution Foundation research looking at what’s happening in the jobs market. In the late 1990s if … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Skills· Pay Spotlight: The growing ‘disloyalty bonus’ 2 August 2018 by Stephen Clarke Working out whether it’s worth waiting for Godot relies on a clear reading of what’s happening to wage growth. One factor that influences this is the changing composition of the workforce. In the short-run one of the big changes is that since 2012 the number of people employed in the UK has risen by 2.5 … Continued READ MORE
Childcare· Inequality & poverty· Welfare A history lesson wouldn’t hurt – at least when it comes to child poverty 24 July 2018 by Torsten Bell and Adam Corlett This blog originally appeared on Times Red Box. A few years back there was an outbreak of national angst about no one studying history any more. The House of Lords even managed a debate on it. That worry seems a long way down the list of concerns these days, when everyone has the latest Donald … Continued READ MORE
Multi-jobbers, pay gaps and the hipster index Top of the Charts 20 July 2018 Afternoon all, Half the government seems to have quit (we’re on to people you’ve never heard of) and Labour MPs are getting in on the act. But MPs aren’t the only ones shedding jobs – this week’s reading brings confirmation that the idea ever more people are doing two or three jobs is a myth. … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay More good news today for low-income families, unless they want a pay rise 17 July 2018 by Stephen Clarke The Office for National Statistic’s monthly release of labour market statistics is an opportunity for economists and commentators to probe the state of the UK economy. Many Twitter characters have been spilt arguing if the figures presage faster wage growth, where employment may heading next, and what all this means for the Bank of England’s … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Migration The most biddable of them all? 16 July 2018 by Lindsay Judge This piece originally appeared on Times Red Box. Today’s headlines tell us once again that net migration from the EU to the UK is down significantly since the Brexit referendum, with record levels of emigration of EU citizens and a large drop in the number of people coming from the continent looking for work. In … Continued READ MORE
Labour market When algorithms go to war in the workplace Businesses crunch data to gain power; workers should bend it to their own ambitions 2 July 2018 by Gavin Kelly One constant in public debate is the assertion that the world of work is on the cusp of unprecedented change. Amid the hype, one genuine source of flux is the manner in which data and technology are combining to alter workplace management and control. To date, this has been a tale of the good, the … Continued READ MORE
Feminising foreign policy, remembering Grenfell, and unionising the young Top of the Charts 1 June 2018 Sign up for our weekly Top of the Charts emails here It’s June. Or as we optimistically call it in Britain: the start of summer. And things are definitely heating up political economy-wise. Southern Europe has decided stable governments with parliamentary majorities are so 2017 – as Spain gets jealous of Italy hogging the headlines. Not … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay Tackling the new frontiers of low pay 23 May 2018 by Conor D’Arcy Bad policies get the most attention. Whole books have been written on government interventions that achieved the exact opposite of what they intended, or eventually delivered at miles over budget. That’s why the UK’s minimum wage – effective, popular and cheap – is such a rare thing. The latest evidence confirms the minimum wage’s continued … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Free transport, the productivity puzzle, and paying attention to Angry Birds Top of the Charts 18 May 2018 Are those wedding bells we can hear, or just the normal Friday afternoon fire alarm tests? The good (or bad, if like one RF colleague you live in Windsor) news is that you will be hearing wedding bells tomorrow. Try to contain your excitement. If, controversially, your plans don’t include watching the full five hours … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Productivity & industrial strategy· Pay Britain’s labour market – the good (jobs), the bad (pay) and the ugly (productivity) 15 May 2018 by George Bangham This month’s labour market statistics gave us a classic mixed bag of results, with reasons to be cheerful on jobs, confused on pay, and downright depressed when it comes to Britain’s productivity record. Let’s start with the good news on jobs. Employment has hit another new high, with recent growth driven by full-time work – … Continued READ MORE
