Housing Home ownership is rising, but the crisis is far from over 22 December 2018 by Daniel Tomlinson Across the country today hundreds of thousands of twenty and thirtysomethings are heading back to their parents’ homes for Christmas. Most (around two-thirds) of these parents are home owners, but the same cannot be said for their kids. Home ownership rates have fallen across all age groups in the UK in recent decades, with the … Continued READ MORE
Social security Boosting benefit take-up is critical to the success of Universal Credit, but we might not be able to measure whether it’s working 20 December 2018 by George Bangham and Adam Corlett Benefit take-up rates matter. A lot. If households aren’t actually receiving the benefits that government policy entitles them to, their incomes will be lower and the social safety net will not work as intended. The government’s own estimates of benefits take-up suggest that billions of pounds worth of benefits probably go unclaimed each year. Take-up … Continued READ MORE
Social security Three steps to make it a happier new year for Universal Credit 18 December 2018 by Laura Gardiner Universal Credit (UC) was a surprise contender for one of the big stories of the Budget, with the Chancellor announcing a welcome reinjection of cash into the system. UC has (finally) hit another important milestone too – as of December 2018, it is on offer to all new claimants of working-age benefits in jobcentres across … Continued READ MORE
Work Enforce the rules to help workers in Britain’s changing workforce 17 December 2018 by Lindsay Judge It’s here at last. Almost a year and a half after the Taylor Review was published and four consultations on, the government has finally released its plan of action to improve the quality of jobs in the UK. So is this an early Christmas present for the millions of people who work through an agency, … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public finances Hitting the books: student loans and the public finances 16 December 2018 by Matthew Whittaker With everything that’s going on in British politics right now, it’s easy to forget that the government was celebrating some seriously good news just seven weeks ago. You might remember that the Chancellor got handed a £74 billion fiscal windfall at the Budget that allowed him to deliver the long-promised extra spending on the NHS … Continued READ MORE
Work Good tidings from the UK labour market 11 December 2018 by Nye Cominetti Earlier this year, in a fit of optimism, the ONS moved its monthly labour market stats release from Wednesday to Tuesday morning so that the data would have proper scrutiny before PMQs. With little in the way of voting going on, MPs can now spend the next 24 hours poring over the latest employment and … Continued READ MORE
Work Apprenticeships have a starring role in the government’s technical education reforms. But are they delivering? 8 December 2018 by Kathleen Henehan Rarely a headline-grabber in the broadsheets (or indeed, the tabloids), yesterday’s speech on technical education by the Education Secretary offered a welcome respite from the mind-numbing livestream of Brexit-related updates. The central premise of Damian Hinds’ speech – that the UK’s technical education system should offer young people clear routes into specialist, well-paid careers – … Continued READ MORE
Housing· Wealth & assets· Generations The Bank of Mum and Dad pays out at least three times in life 4 December 2018 by Torsten Bell Times change, Britain changes, and it doesn’t stop changing just because we’re all naturally obsessed by Brexit. Our need to understand and respond to those changes is as big as ever – and nowhere is that more true than in the growing importance in our society of wealth, which has risen from three times our … Continued READ MORE
Migration· Work Migratory patterns in Britain’s labour market 13 November 2018 by Stephen Clarke More records tumbled in the UK labour market this summer. On jobs, we had good news on quantity and quality as the people in full-time employment reached a record high of nearly 24 million. And this record high is all the more striking as it came alongside a record fall in the number of EU … Continued READ MORE
Firms· Work Relocation, relocation, relocation – why workers in firms are increasingly staying put 13 November 2018 by Stephen Clarke Channel 4 (or at least some of it) is off to Leeds. Some staff may be relishing the move, some may have wanted to move to Manchester or Birmingham, while others may have just wanted to stay put. Despite the mixed feelings one thing is undisputed; Channel 4 staff are now part of an increasingly … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Health and disability· Work· Housing· Generations All aboard the Millennial Express – longer commutes for less pay 8 November 2018 by Nye Cominetti The ONS serve to uplift and depress analysts like me in equal measure. And today they served up the latter, with new figures showing that the number of people commuting for more than an hour to get into work has increased by almost a third (31 per cent) since 2011. Longer commutes are good news … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public finances Pessimism, Politics and Economics: the real Budget story 2 November 2018 by James Smith Debates following this week’s Budget have been dominated by political arguments about whether the Chancellor’s spending splurge means that austerity had been ended or lives on (our view: austerity was significantly eased but not ended). But another debate has been conspicuously absent this week, having dominated the UK’s political economy for the past eight years: … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Work Never mind the end of austerity, what about the end of low pay? 2 November 2018 by Conor D’Arcy While post-Budget debates on austerity and tax cuts rumble on, one clear living standards win on Monday was an increase in the National Living Wage (NLW). But beyond announcing the rate for next year, the government also used the Budget to set out a bold new aspiration that could have major implications: ending low pay. … Continued READ MORE
Housing Lifting the lid on the HRA cap 31 October 2018 by Lindsay Judge and Daniel Tomlinson Budget 2018 may have been a bigger deal than most of us expected but it’s been underwhelming when it comes to housing, especially given the government claimed just weeks ago that ‘solving the housing crisis is the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation’. That said, we do now have details about the lifting of … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public finances The Budget marks a very significant easing – but not an end of austerity 30 October 2018 by Torsten Bell Marriages require compromise. So we shouldn’t be surprised that the reluctant political marriage between Theresa May and Phillip Hammond has delivered a compromise Budget. Caught between the Prime Ministers promise to “end austerity”, the wish to see debt falling, and the reality of the parliamentary arithmetic making significant tax rises difficult the Chancellor has taken … Continued READ MORE
Work Apprenticeship starts increased in July – but the overall forecast isn’t so sunny 28 October 2018 by Kathleen Henehan Although the UK enjoyed some glorious weather this month, the Met Office recently predicted cooler temperatures and gloomy skies in the immediate days ahead. Given the time of year, this isn’t all that surprising, but deep down you can’t help but be disappointed: the dullness of dreary weather can cause days to blend into each … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Inequality & poverty· Work The gender pay gap is at an all-time low – but beyond the headlines, things aren’t so rosy 25 October 2018 by Fahmida Rahman ‘The UK’s gender pay gap has reached a record low of 8.6 per cent for full-time employees,’ read today’s headlines. This is certainly true, on the whole. But averages inevitably mask a wealth of compositional effects which show that large gains for some unwittingly offset not-so-large gains for others, as well as some not-quite-so-rosy trends … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Work Wage growth, low pay and falling hours: breaking down this year’s ASHE figures 25 October 2018 by Conor D’Arcy For labour market wonks, ‘ASHE day’ is like your birthday and Christmas rolled into one. Each year around this time, the ONS publishes a plethora of spreadsheets packed to the brim with data on how wages have performed over the last year. While there are definitely some pleasant surprises in this year’s figures, there are … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Housing Easing the housing headache: what the Chancellor should do in next week’s Budget 22 October 2018 by Lindsay Judge No doubt about it, housing is a headache for many young people today. The dramatic fall in the home ownership rates of the under-35s often produces the sharpest pangs for politicians (although as Chart 1 shows, we’ve seen a slight uptick in the proportion of young families owning in the last year or so). But … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public finances· Tax The Chancellor may have one arm tied behind his back, but there are still tax levers he can pull 21 October 2018 by Adam Corlett How can a government with a tenuous majority, an intra-party feud and Brexit uncertainty find the money to ‘end austerity’ on top of more than £20 billion a year it has promised for the NHS? The safe bet is that it won’t find anywhere near all of it in the Budget. This can – like … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Social security Despite ‘the end of austerity’, April promises another deep benefit cut 17 October 2018 by Adam Corlett Today we learned just how deep the benefits freeze will be in its fourth and final year. In July 2015, having promised £12 billion of welfare cuts – reportedly on the assumption that the Liberal Democrats would argue this down – George Osborne announced exactly that. Chief among these cuts was a further working age … Continued READ MORE
Social security Delaying rollout of Universal Credit is a sensible step – but fundamental reforms are still needed 16 October 2018 by David Finch Today we learnt that the government is preparing a package of measures for Universal Credit (UC) ahead of the upcoming Budget – but what are they changing and what difference might it make? The first thing to understand is that these changes aren’t about the fundamentals of either the generosity or operation of Universal Credit … Continued READ MORE
Work Has Britain’s long overdue pay recovery finally arrived? 16 October 2018 by Stephen Clarke In 1965 The Kinks sang “I’m so tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for you”. This neatly sums up how many of us have felt about the UK labour market over the past decade, in particular our pay packets. Since 2009 we’ve grown quite tired of waiting for signs that pay growth could be … Continued READ MORE
Social security Universal Credit: the honesty we owe and the changes we need 12 October 2018 by Torsten Bell and Resolution Foundation 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
Budgets & fiscal events· Public finances The OBR on Brexit: known-unknowns and unknown-unknowns cast shadow over the Budget 11 October 2018 by James Smith As if Philip Hammond’s job over the next few weeks wasn’t tough enough already, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) this morning has published its thinking on how Brexit will make his life harder for many years to come. Already charged with “ending austerity” (which, as Torsten pointed out last week, is a stretch to … Continued READ MORE
