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of technical progress, many middle-skill, middle-wage jobs (such as assembly line operators and clerical workers) have been replaced by machinery, hollowing out … Continued READ MORE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
Labour market Cameron is right to focus on quality apprenticeships 7 February 2012 by James Plunkett If there are ‘no votes in skills’, as the old dictum goes, there seem to be some in apprenticeships. Hence David Cameron’s call this morning for apprenticeships to become a ‘gold standard’ qualification ranking alongside degrees from the best universities. His goal is to rectify Britain’s shockingly poor performance on mid-level skills compared to world … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Squeezed middle: all pain, no gain 30 January 2012 by Matthew Whittaker Average incomes in the ‘squeezed middle’ group will take until at least 2020 to return to their 2007 level – a trend made even worse by public sector cuts With two out of three British workers facing pay freezes, inflation running at an annual average of 5.2% and widespread cuts to government spending on services and … Continued READ MORE
Housing Homeownership: the preserve of the rich? 25 January 2012 by Joe Coward One of the most striking findings of our Squeezed Britain report, which sets out the economic position of the squeezed middle in forensic detail, is that home ownership is now out of reach for many people on low to middle incomes (LMI). On the basis of current incomes, house prices and the loan-to-value ratios now available, it … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Waving goodbye to two decades 25 January 2012 by Gavin Kelly Another week, another terrible set of GDP figures, an IMF downgrade of the UK’s growth prospects, and a new reportshowing the squeeze on living standards is set to run and run. The public, along with our politicians, is probably starting to grow immune to some of the shocking headlines about how long it will be before … Continued READ MORE
Living standards The real squeezed middle could stagnate for 20 years 24 January 2012 by Joe Coward This morning Liam Byrne and David Laws launched a new Resolution Foundation report, Squeezed Britain, which sets out the economic position of the squeezed middle in forensic detail, offering some pointers towards what will be the key political issues over the next few years. The report focuses on people on low to middle incomes, who the … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Acting like an opposition while in government can only take you so far 18 January 2012 by Gavin Kelly Tomorrow David Cameron will complete the beauty parade of party leaders offering their take on crony capitalism, following on from Ed Miliband’s conference speech, which he amplified last week, and Nick Clegg’s call for a “John Lewis economy”. Expect Cameron to balance a fierce rhetorical attack on boardroom excess (“fill your boots capitalism”) with plenty … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Food and fuel prices will be key to inflation in the year ahead 17 January 2012 by James Plunkett Backed by strong discounting from retailers, RPI fell from 5.2 per cent in November to 4.8 per cent in December, while CPI fell from 4.8 per cent to 4.2 per cent, its largest one month drop since December 2008. Stressed-out-by-inflationThat of course means inflation remains at more than twice the level of its Bank of … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The scandal of low-paid care workers 22 December 2011 by Gavin Kelly and Joe Coward A friend who is a care worker employed by an agency has a moan to me about her work. Repeated 15 minute slots with a client followed by a frantic dash to another part of the city she lives in to do the same again. Care in a hurry, on the cheap. Welcome to home … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Lessons from America 20 December 2011 by Sophia Parker In the three months I’ve been working on low income households in the US, a wry smile and an emphatic “no” is the almost universal response I get to my question “does the US have any lessons for the UK?” It is certainly true that American safety nets, where they exist at all, are more … Continued READ MORE
Housing Plugging the gap in the rental market 17 December 2011 by Louisa Darian We may be out of recession but the housing market story continues to be one of doom and gloom. House prices continue to fall, the mortgage market continues to contract. While even deposit ready first-time buyers are struggling, the situation is exponentially worse for low-to-middle earners. With just 2 per cent of mortgages available at … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Changing the conversation in 2012 16 December 2011 by Gavin Kelly Low growth, high unemployment, deeper cuts, falling wages, and a further reduction in the living standards of working families. Just in case you were under any doubt, 2012 is going to feel like one long Groundhog Day, a darker version of its grim predecessor. There will, of course, be many new twists and turns. But … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Uneven inflation costing low-to-middle earners £150 a year 15 December 2011 by Matthew Whittaker Today’s figures from the Office for National Statistics shows that inflation rose in the UK in November, with the CPI increasing from 3.2% to 3.3% – above the government’s official target of 2% for the eleventh month in a row – and the wider RPI measure rising from 4.5% to 4.7%. With average annual earnings growth sitting … Continued READ MORE
