Coronavirus· Living standards· Incomes Return to spender Findings on family incomes and spending from the Resolution Foundation’s coronavirus survey 9 June 2020 by Mike Brewer and Laura Gardiner Based on the Resolution Foundation’s new coronavirus survey of 6,000 working-age adults, this briefing note explores family spending during the crisis, with a focus on how outcomes have differed across the working-age income distribution. READ MORE
Incomes· Inequality & poverty· Wealth & assets· Tax Who gains? The importance of accounting for capital gains 21 May 2020 by Adam Corlett and Arun Advani and Andy Summers This report looks at what we know about taxable capital gains; how our understanding of top income shares changes if we include capital gains in our analysis; and whether official statistical definitions of income should be changed or supplemented. READ MORE
Coronavirus· Incomes· Welfare Next steps to support family incomes in the face of the coronavirus crisis 25 March 2020 by Torsten Bell and Mike Brewer and Laura Gardiner and Karl Handscomb and Daniel Tomlinson The Government has set out an unprecedented package of support for family incomes, including paying 80 per cent of the wages of employees who currently have no work, via its Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Delivering that scheme should be the top priority, given its crucial role in preventing a very steep rise in unemployment and … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Pensions & savings· Inequality & poverty· Wealth & assets· Political parties and elections Who owns all the pie? The size and distribution of Britain’s £14.6 trillion of wealth 5 December 2019 by George Bangham and Jack Leslie While incomes have stagnated over the past decade, our national wealth has continued to boom. Data released today put UK households collective wealth at £14.6 trillion. But that total is far from equally distributed: the richest 10 per cent of households own almost half of the nation’s wealth having benefitted most from the recent wealth … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Jobs· Labour market· Job quality and security· Low pay· Pay Feel poor, work more Explaining the UK’s record employment 12 November 2019 by Torsten Bell and Laura Gardiner There is no bigger change to our economy over the past decade than the employment boom. We argue that this has been driven by the deep post-crisis income squeeze. This pushed up labour supply via more workers, and a pause in the long-term decline in working hours. READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Prices & consumption· Inequality & poverty· Welfare The benefit freeze has ended, but erosion of the social security safety net continues Expected benefit uprating in April 2020 16 October 2019 by Adam Corlett Major working-age benefits will rise in cash terms in April 2020, for the first time in five years. But while the benefit freeze has now ended, its effect of significantly weakening the social security safety net has not. READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty· Social mobility Tackling structural inequality should sit at the heart of boosting living standards 8 October 2019 by Fahmida Rahman Tackling inequality is a long game, particularly when faced with deeply embedded structural inequalities. And understanding how structural inequality plays out across different people, places and points in time requires the adoption of a new focus within the researcher and policy making community. READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty The Living Standards Outlook 2018 22 February 2018 by Adam Corlett and George Bangham and David Finch This report projects forwards the real spending power of typical households and the distribution of income to 2022-23. Results incorporate household income data up to 2015-16, what we know about the key drivers of living standards to 2017-18 and the latest economics forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Unequal results: improving and reconciling the UK’s household income statistics 3 December 2017 by Adam Corlett This briefing note explores different sources of data on household incomes and inequality in the UK. It sets out some of the improvements already planned, and what else needs to be done so that this data continues to inform debate and public policy. READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty The living standards audit 2017 15 July 2017 by Adam Corlett and Daniel Tomlinson and Stephen Clarke In this report we provide the first comprehensive look at the living standards of UK households in the year leading up to the 2017 general election, as well as a detailed look at the trends in living standards over the previous two decades. The years since the financial crisis have been far from an easy … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty· Intergenerational Centre As time goes by: shifting incomes and inequality between and within generations 13 February 2017 by Adam Corlett This is the Resolution Foundation’s fourth report for the Intergenerational Commission, which over the course of 2017 will examine issues of intergenerational fairness and make recommendations to strengthen the intergenerational social contract. This paper, building on previous work on the earnings of different generations, examines household income. Specifically, it looks both at changes in income … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Living Standards 2017: the past, present and possible future of UK incomes 31 January 2017 by Adam Corlett and Stephen Clarke This is the Resolution Foundation’s eighth annual state of the nation report on UK living standards. It comes at a time when the recovery from the last downturn is still incomplete for some, yet the threat of a new squeeze on living standards looms large. The financial crisis hit households hard, yet in the last … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Budgets & fiscal events· Incomes· Public spending· Economy and public finances· Welfare Under New Management: options for supporting ‘just managing’ families at the Autumn Statement 7 November 2016 by David Finch and Matthew Whittaker The new Prime Minister has been very clear in her determination to put the interests of ‘just managing’ families at the heart of her government, but she has inherited tax and benefit plans which are set to lower incomes for many in the group over the remainder of the parliament. With post-EU referendum revisions to projections for … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Hanging on: the stresses and strains of Britain’s ‘just managing’ families 29 September 2016 by David Finch New governments have no record on which to be judged, meaning that a great deal of emphasis is placed on what they say. Our new Prime Minister has made it clear that her government will focus its attention on working families with relatively low earnings – those who are ‘just managing’. That approach has been … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Living Standards 2016: The experiences of low to middle income households in downturn and recovery 15 February 2016 by Adam Corlett and David Finch and Matthew Whittaker This is the Resolution Foundation’s seventh annual state of the nation report on living standards, and it is testament to the depth of the downturn that has gripped households since the financial crisis hit that average incomes only just appear to be returning to the level they were at when we published the first one in the series. In … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Squeezed Britain 2013 13 February 2013 by Matthew Whittaker We now know that the squeeze on living standards will be longer and deeper than projected this time last year. Average wages are not expected to rise in real terms until late 2014 after a period of stagnation and decline. Despite stronger than expected job growth in the private sector, many people continue to work … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty The squeezed middle: The pressure on ordinary workers in America and Britain 16 January 2013 by Sophia Parker As wages stagnate but living costs keep rising, the pressure on working people grows more intense. The issue of living standards has become one of the most urgent challenges for politicians in both Britain and America. ‘The squeezed middle’ brings together experts from both sides of the Atlantic to ask what the UK can learn … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty· Welfare Life on a low income 5 April 2012 by Katherine Green In April 2011 Resolution Foundation started following 7 low to middle income families across England to track their financial and economic position and how their lives changed over the course of 12 months. This report summarises their experiences over the year and the key challenges faced by the families. READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Squeezed Britain 26 January 2012 by Matthew Whittaker and Jess Bailey Squeezed Britain reveals what life is really like for families who are in work but on a low to middle income. Facing a new tax credits squeeze on top of a continued fall in real wages and a growing chance of a lifetime in renting, this group’s household finances are increasingly precarious. READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Why did Britain’s households get richer? Decomposing UK household income growth between 1968 and 2008–09? 6 December 2011 by Mike Brewer and Liam Wren-Lewis Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis for the Resolution Foundation Commission on Living Standards. Average UK household income has almost doubled in real terms over the past forty years. This report asks ‘From where has the growth in household income come?’ and answers this by analysing the various factors that have contributed to this growth. Although many … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Why did Britain’s households get richer? 6 November 2011 by Mike Brewer and Liam Wren-Lewis This analysis by the IFS for Resolution Foundation is concerned with decomposing UK household income growth between 1968 and 2008–09. It seeks to investigate the sources of the rise in average household income that has occurred in the UK over the last four decades and finds that there are several important sources of this growth, and that these sources … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Productivity & industrial strategy· Inequality & poverty· Economic growth Painful Separation 28 October 2011 by Jess Bailey and Joe Coward and Matthew Whittaker Workers are gaining less of the proceeds from economic growth right across the OECD. Painful Separation examines the relationship between economic growth and wages for workers on middle (median) wages over the last 30 years in 10 major OECD countries. READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Missing Out 25 July 2011 by Matthew Whittaker Workers in the bottom half of the earnings distribution have seen their fortunes decline significantly in the last thirty years. In the Resolution Foundation’s second report to the Commission on Living Standards Matthew Whittaker and Lee Savage explore who is receiving the fruits of growth and who is Missing Out. READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty· Economic growth Growth without gain?: The faltering living standards of people on low-to-middle incomes 27 May 2011 by James Plunkett The living standards of people on low to middle incomes were already faltering prior to the recession, and it is no longer safe to assume they will rise when economic growth returns. Growth without gain? explores the boom years 2003 to 2008. READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty Moving on up? Social mobility in the 1990s and 2000s 11 March 2011 by Lee Savage There is a general view that social mobility in Britain declined in the second half of the twentieth century, that Britain is no longer a meritocratic country where a person’s life chances are determined by effort and talent rather than by family background. Declining social mobility has been a concern for successive governments and the … Continued READ MORE
