Welfare The great tax swindle 2 April 2013 by Gavin Kelly In the week when the meaning of austerity hits home for many, the one big coalition giveaway comes in the form of the rapidly rising personal tax allowance. Any criticism about cuts to tax credits or benefits is met with the same ministerial retort: just look at the size of our tax reductions for those on low … Continued READ MORE
Labour market At Last, the Minimum Wage Debate Is Growing Up 27 March 2013 by James Plunkett This post originally appeared on James’s Huffington Post blog While low pay and in-work poverty have risen up the economic agenda in recent years, our policy debate has been stuck in a loop. Ask most Labour politicians about low pay and you can expect a well-intentioned but passive mixture of pride in the minimum wage and … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The Pay Squeeze Just Got Tighter and Longer 21 March 2013 by James Plunkett This post originally appeared on James’s Huffington Post blog As always, it’s the policy pronouncements that attract the attention on Budget day. A cheap pint is much more interesting than the minutiae of OBR figures. But the big story on Wesndesday in terms of its impact on households didn’t come from the Chancellor but from Robert … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The wage squeeze 21 March 2013 by Matthew Whittaker The OBR’s latest projections for average earnings and inflation suggest that the wage squeeze will look worse over the next few years than previously feared: wages will fall further relative to prices and recover more slowly. Our analysis of the OBR figures shows that the situation is even starker for the ‘typical’ worker – those … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Budget 2013: the new childcare support excludes families who most need help 20 March 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson In a time of austerity, why is extra money being directed towards families earning £300,000, and not those on universal credit? The centrepiece of the budget will be a new system of tax-free childcare vouchers (deliberately misnamed tax relief by the government) for middle- and higher-income families. Of the nearly £1bn earmarked for childcare, £750m is going … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Easing the squeeze: a tax cut for all? 20 March 2013 by Matthew Whittaker In the run up to today’s Budget, it has been widely reported that the Chancellor is set to announce a further above-inflation increase in the personal tax allowance – the amount that an individual can earn before becoming liable for income tax – meaning that it will reach the £10,000 target that the Government previously … Continued READ MORE
Welfare What does the childcare announcement really tell us? 19 March 2013 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog Before we rush to dissect the government’s new childcare policy it is worth pausing to reflect on the very fact that in an unprecedented time of austerity a Conservative-led administration is proposing to spend near on £1bn on childcare. There are all sorts of caveats and problems … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Squeezed Middle: a wake-up call 13 March 2013 by Sophia Parker This blog originally appeared on Public Finance In the UK, low and middle income families face flatlining or falling living standards. But the so-called ‘squeezed middle’ is under even greater pressure in the US. What can we learn? New analysis of the ‘squeezed middle’ in America and Britain, launched today by the Resolution Foundation, raises some important pointers … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Transatlantic lessons for middle Britain 13 March 2013 by Sophia Parker This blog originally appeared on Bright Blue Today sees the launch of ‘The Squeezed Middle: the pressure on ordinary workers in America and Britain’ – a collection of essays from America’s leading thinkers in the field of living standards to understand what lessons, if any, we might draw from the US experience. You may well wonder what we … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The road to a jobs recovery is longer than it seems 12 March 2013 by James Plunkett This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post For anyone hoping to sift a nugget of gold from recent economic data, employment stats have been the place to look. In the past year, the number of people working in the UK has risen faster than at any time since 1989, a remarkable performance from an economy … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Keeping it private 6 March 2013 by Matthew Whittaker Despite the sluggish economic recovery, employment figures continue to surprise on the upside. With the public sector rapidly being cut back, all of this employment growth is of course coming from the private sector. But what does the picture look like across the different parts of the UK? The green bars in the chart below show … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Low Pay Is Fast Becoming a Defining Challenge of Our Age 28 February 2013 by James Plunkett This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post You can tell a lot about a downturn by the image that comes to define it. From queues outside job centres in the 1970s and early 1980s to the poll tax riots that preceded the early 1990s recession, the pictures that stick in the mind have a habit … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Retirement trends in the UK 26 February 2013 by Giselle Cory We aren’t saving enough for retirement. This was one of the findings presented in Resolution Foundation’s recent audit of low to middle income households, Squeezed Britain, which showed that a massive 69 per cent of low to middle income households do not have a pension. Across all income groups the proportion failing to save for a … Continued READ MORE
Living standards The end of pledge-card politics? 22 February 2013 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog The next election will see a battered electorate in need of economic and social respite confronted by a political elite woefully lacking in resources and public trust. Never in recent times will so much be asked from leaders who have so little to respond with. The result … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Never had it so squeezed 13 February 2013 by Matthew Whittaker This post orginally appeared on Public Finance Even in the boom years, a large proportion of the population never shared the proceeds of growth. That’s even less likely today as austerity really hits home Mired as we are in a fifth year of economic crisis and austerity, it’s easy to forget that not long ago we’d … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances The coalition’s welfare cuts mean a dramatic rise in council tax for the poorest 31 January 2013 by Matthew Pennycook This article originally appeared on the New Statesman The decision to reduce the budget for council tax support by 10 per cent means low-income households face a tax increase of up to £600. Accustomed to the inflated claims of successive governments, readers might be forgiven for rolling their eyes at the phrase “radical welfare reform”. Yet … Continued READ MORE
Welfare The wrong reform – at the worst possible time 30 January 2013 by Gavin Kelly Britain’s poorest households – already struggling to cope with falling wages, rising living costs, and a series of cuts to tax credits and benefits – are about to receive another blow. And very few of them know it’s coming. Within weeks they will receive an unexpected council tax bill in the post. Many will assume … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Could the Tories’ plan for re-election in 2015 cost just 10p? 28 January 2013 by Gavin Kelly Might something new be stirring on the right of politics in relation to the plight of Britain’s low paid? Just to pose the question is to invite ridicule from many on the left: how could the minimum-wage opposing, tax-credit cutting, VAT-hiking, benefit-squeezing Conservative party have anything to say to those at the sharp end of … Continued READ MORE
Welfare The coalition and families with children – a taxing issue? 21 January 2013 by Gavin Kelly This blog originally appeared on the New Statesman Often it takes the deadline of an impending announcement to really expose underlying tensions about the future direction of policy. The coalition’s recent sorry saga on childcare policy – breathless briefings about a major expansion in tax-relief meant to herald the coalition’s renewed vitality, followed by an awkward … Continued READ MORE
Welfare The Childcare Announcement That Never Was 18 January 2013 by James Plunkett This blog originally appeared on the Huffington Post Uncertainty continues to cloud the government’s plans on childcare. Latest rumours suggest they may now delay any big announcement until after the budget. If government sources are to be believed, the most recent plans have been scuppered by a tag team of HMT officials and senior Lib Dems. The Treasury is … Continued READ MORE
Welfare The Coalition’s Childcare Policy Moves in Mysterious Ways 8 January 2013 by James Plunkett This post orginally appeared on The Huffingtom Post blog There may have been few details in Monday’s renewal of Coalition vows but one key policy continues to invite debate: the government’s plans for childcare. Much remains uncertain but it does now seem clear that the government hopes to use tax relief as its key way of … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Childcare tax breaks risk helping the rich the most 8 January 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson This post originally appeared on The Staggers blog At present, there are almost no voucher recipients among the poorest 40 per cent of households. In the week that parents earning over £50,000 saw their child benefit cut, the speculation is that the government intends to introduce tax relief for childcare, possibly making those who were worse off from … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances An Autumn Statement for strivers? 5 December 2012 by Matthew Whittaker Today’s fiscally neutral Autumn Statement was billed as one for strivers. We have already shown that around 60 per cent of the cut associated with the 1 per cent uprating of most working-age benefits and tax credits will actually fall on working households. But of course, the additional £235 increase in the personal tax allowance … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances From striver alert to future cuts: five things to expect from the Autumn Statement 4 December 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog In the Autumn Statement there will be a blizzard of facts, figures, assertions and counter-assertions. There have been a few helpful pointers on what lto ook out for (try this and this), and I’ve already given my tuppence worth on what may happen to the faltering fiscal rules. But here are a … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances George Osborne cannot possibly know how long austerity will last 2 December 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog Next week George Osborne will hold forth on the size of the underlying deficit and reveal whether austerity will now extend until at least 2018. When he does, he won’t know what he’s talking about – and he’ll be in good company. Neither will Ed Balls when … Continued READ MORE
