Living standards Too fast, too slow – how the passing of time is shaping politics for Cameron and Miliband 8 May 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog Two years into the life of the coalition and all the sudden the passing of time seems like Ed Miliband’s best friend and David Cameron’s worst foe. For a government that has lost its footing, facing an opposition learning how to benefit from the stumbling and fumbling, the … Continued READ MORE
Welfare A tax on aspiration? 2 May 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog Governments, like individuals, often like to believe their varying instincts and aspirations all fit comfortably together even when they don’t. They prefer to try to keep these tensions under wraps and sometimes don’t even like to admit them in private to themselves. And the coalition is … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Minimum wage is the least carers deserve 19 April 2012 by Gavin Kelly Gavin Kelly, The GuardianA good thing about the national minimum wage, you might think, is that even if it’s set at a pretty modest level you can at least be sure that everyone will receive it. Sure, there will be the odd rogue employer who needs to be tackled for non-compliance. But it’s not like there … Continued READ MORE
Labour market More than a minimum? 17 April 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post first appeared on Gavin Kelly’s New Statesman blog. Once in a while a policy moves from being partisan and divisive to representing the mainstream consensus in a very short period of time. That is, or at least was, the case with the national minimum wage (NMW). It wasn’t so long ago it was denigrated … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Bad Univeralism 16 April 2012 by Gavin Kelly Gavin Kelly, Prospect Universal welfare benefits, available to all regardless of income, have long animated the politics of the welfare state. Prime Ministers from Atlee to Cameron have grappled with the universal principle, whereby certain benefits are given to all citizens, even the rich. Universalism goes against the notion that benefits should always target the … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Left behind in the lower realms of the labour market 28 March 2012 by Matthew Pennycook Times are undoubtedly tough for the 350,000-plus graduates who now leave university every year. Collapsing demand in some parts of our jobs market has seen competition for jobs intensify and many graduates now seek jobs for which they are over-qualified, accepting lower wages than their qualifications would usually be expected to command.And yet for all … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Osborne’s budget: all in it together? Or are we ever more divided as cuts bite 24 March 2012 by Gavin Kelly Gavin Kelly, The ObserverThere’s been much talk of the cuts hitting women harder than men. Certainly the government hasn’t been slow to hit support for families – which hits women harder. Support for childcare was targeted early on. This week’s child benefit fix at least made a bad policy a bit better. But it remains the … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Making sense of the budget 21 March 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog “In this country we have to look upon budget promises as made of the same stuff as lover’s oaths.” So said Lord Salisbury, three times Conservative PM, and his words are perhaps more apt than ever given that all the love drained out of the Coalition’s marriage … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Budget 2012: George Osborne is hitting families even harder 20 March 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson This post originally appeared on The Guardian website Although the chancellor will only step up to the despatch box to present his budget later today, we already know about the changes that will have the greatest impact on Britain’s working families. That is because governments are in the habit of announcing changes years in advance, ensuring families … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Osborne opts for the tax politicians love… 20 March 2012 by Gavin Kelly … and economists love to hate. This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog George Osborne’s budget morning story, that Stamp Duty will go up to 7 per cent on properties over £2 million, shouldn’t really surprise us. It has strong echoes of Gordon Brown’s 2010 budget day story about hiking Stamp Duty up … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances A Budget For Working Families? 20 March 2012 by Daniel Chandler This blog originally appeared on The Huffington Post Chancellor George Osborne says tomorrow’s budget will be a budget for working families. “The bulk of the measures in the budget are going to be targeted at working people on low and middle incomes” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday. So, with budget day upon us, … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Tax credit cuts: a false economy 16 March 2012 by Giselle Cory This blog originally appeared on Public Finance If the Chancellor wants to help low- to middle-income households, he would be wise not to sacrifice tax credits, by far the most progressive way to help poor families Seventy per cent of April’s new cuts to tax credits will fall on households in the bottom half of … Continued READ MORE
Welfare The price of motherhood 15 March 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson For the first time last year, the hourly gap in pay between full-time working men and women fell to 10 percent. While that’s not good enough and is still higher than in much of the rest of Europe, it is a sign of enormous progress in reducing work place inequality. In 1997, the hourly full-time … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Is Osborne really about to give people on £100k a tax cut? 14 March 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog As we close in on the budget most eyes are still fixed on the fate of the 50p tax rate. Ignore for a moment some of the squeals from Labour on this issue (more in excited anticipation that it will be axed than horror) and spare a … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Explaining the child benefit saga 6 March 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog Observing a government in the midst of a policy u-turn is rarely an elegant sight. When it is drawn out over an extended period, and fuelled by briefing and nods and winks from the PM downwards, it is even less edifying. So it is with the coalition’s … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The problem of low wage work runs far beyond workfare 3 March 2012 by Matthew Pennycook This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post The recent furore surrounding the UK government’s Work Experience programme has centred somewhat narrowly on the rights and wrongs of large corporations benefiting from free youth labour. Largely absent from the debate has been the wider problem of low wage work in our economy. At a time of … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The Changing Shape of the UK Job Market 2 March 2012 by Craig Holmes This post appeared on the OECD Insights blog It’s becoming more and more common to hear both researchers and policymakers talking about the UK developing an hourglass labour market. This is the idea that, because of technical progress, many middle-skill, middle-wage jobs (such as assembly line operators and clerical workers) have been replaced by machinery, hollowing out … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances The prime minister needs to think long 1 March 2012 by Gavin Kelly Gavin Kelly, Financial TimesThe ongoing NHS debacle reveals far more than Andrew Lansley’s lack of political acumen. It also tells us about the governing habits of the coalition and how they need to change.Full Article READ MORE
Welfare What can the chancellor do to address the high costs of childcare? 28 February 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson This piece first appeared on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site. Laura works 25 hours a week as an accounts administrator. After paying for childcare, she takes home only half of what she earns. This is an all too familiar picture for working families in Britain and, according to Monday’s report by theDaycare Trust, things … Continued READ MORE
Welfare What works in encouraging saving? 23 February 2012 by Giselle Cory This post originally appeared on Left Foot Forward There are many tricks that can be used to encourage more saving – but we don’t know if any of them work. That is the finding from a new report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies. In looking outside classical economics to understand what drives savings, the authors pinpoint four … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Why Nick Clegg’s still taxing Cameron and Miliband 19 February 2012 by Gavin Kelly It remains a curiosity of today’s political scene that a small and unpopular party bumping along on 7 to 10 per cent in opinion polls is making the waves on the central issue of tax policy. On this one issue at least, the two main parties find themselves reacting to the gauntlet the Liberal Democrats have … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Tax credits: a flawed friend 17 February 2012 by Gavin Kelly Following on from this week’s bleak news on jobs – with unemployment up and confirmation that those new jobs on offer are all part time and insecure – another wave of stealth cuts is about to crash over Britain’s working poor. After their tax credits were singled out for harsh treatment last spring then frozen in the autumn, … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The fraying thread between pay and productivity 17 February 2012 by James Plunkett Do workers reap the benefits of productivity growth? Few questions are more central to the conundrum of faltering living standards. If the 20th century was a golden era for material wellbeing in Britain, that’s explained by one factor above all others: from 1900 to 2000 UK labour productivity grew roughly fourfold, translating into unprecedented growth in real … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Beneath the unemployment stats, our jobs market is changing 15 February 2012 by Giselle Cory Unemployment is up. That’s the latest from the Office of National Statistics. Their stats released this morning show 48,000 people fell out of work in the last quarter, with the unemployment rate rising to 8.4 percent. For ministers looking for a positive spin, the good news is that employment’s also up, and there has been a slight … Continued READ MORE
Living standards The lesson Cameron needs to learn from Birgitte Nyborg 9 February 2012 by Gavin Kelly David Cameron has been in Stockholm this week, expressing his love for all things Nordic from economic openness, to free schools, and the Danish TV series The Killing. Based on his pronouncements today he’s doubtless also been attracted to Borgen, the political drama in which a female prime minister juggles coalition politics and the demands of a … Continued READ MORE
