Living standards· Inequality & poverty Improving our understanding of UK poverty will require better data 6 January 2021 by Adam Corlett Policy makers across the political spectrum want to improve the living standards of the UK’s poorer households. The Leader of the House of Commons recently stated that “We are committed to our manifesto pledge to reduce child poverty”, while the last Labour manifesto pledged to “eradicate in-work poverty”. So statistics about poverty matter. We need … Continued 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
Living standards· Inequality & poverty· Cities and regions· Political parties and elections Painting the towns blue Demography, economy and living standards in the political geographies emerging from the 2019 General Election 12 February 2020 by Charlie McCurdy and Laura Gardiner and Maja Gustafsson and Karl Handscomb This report provides an audit of the demography, economy and living standards of what we term the ‘Blue Wall’: the 50 seats that were gained by the Conservatives from Labour in the North East and West, Yorkshire and the Humber, the East and West Midlands, and Wales. We explore whether simplistic characterisations of the Blue … 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
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
Inequality & poverty· Wealth & assets· Scotland Taking stock Report for the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Commission 30 July 2019 by George Bangham and Lindsay Judge There has been a growing appreciation in recent years that living standards are determined not just by income (the flow of money into a household) but also by wealth (the stock of assets a household owns). Wealth can take various forms: it can be held in financial instruments (for example, a savings account or as … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Inequality & poverty· Cities and regions Mapping gaps Geographic inequality in productivity and living standards 11 July 2019 by Stephen Clarke Regional inequality is a hot topic, particularly since the EU referendum exposed huge voting divides between London, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the rest of the UK. This report examines the relative economic performance of UK regions and nations since the 1960s, and the extent to which this has driven differences in household living standards. READ MORE
Living standards· Inequality & poverty· Intergenerational Centre The generation of poverty: Poverty over the life course for different generations 22 May 2019 by Fahmida Rahman Poverty is an age-old problem, but its prevalence has shifted greatly over time. As inequality grew rapidly throughout the 1980s, relative poverty grew with it, peaking at 25 per cent in the mid-1990s. READ MORE
Living standards· Inequality & poverty· Scotland Wrong direction: can Scotland hit its child poverty targets? 22 March 2019 by Adam Corlett The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 created targets for the reduction of child poverty, in a welcome attempt to ensure that poverty reduction remained a policy priority. But agreeing to reduce poverty is easier than doing it. What are the prospects for the Scottish government hitting its goals? READ MORE
Living standards· Inequality & poverty An unexpected cut: Revisiting the Diamond Commission and assessing inequality in post-war Britain 10 August 2018 by Tom Kelsey In 1974, the government established the Diamond Commision on the Distribution of Income and Wealth. This note looks at the Commission’s findings and considers how Britain has changed in the intervening years. It looks at the impact the findings had on policy and public debate in the country and reflects on what can be learnt by those trying to secure a more equal Britain today. This project was undertaken as part of the Historians in Residence programme, which is based at King’s College, London. READ MORE
Living standards· Inequality & poverty The Living Standards Audit 2018 24 July 2018 by Adam Corlett and Stephen Clarke and Conor D’Arcy and John Wood Britain’s weak post-crisis living standards recovery went into reverse last year for the poorest 30 per cent of families. Our analysis shows how important cash benefits like tax credits have been for supporting ‘just about managing’ families and tackling child poverty since the millennium. READ MORE
Living standards· Pay· Inequality & poverty Opportunities Knocked? Exploring pay penalties among the UK’s ethnic minorities 18 July 2018 by Kathleen Henehan and Helena Rose Over the past two decades ethnic minority groups have made substantial gains in relation to education and employment. But in spite of this progress, large pay gaps remain: even after accounting for education, occupation and other key factors, black male graduates are on average paid 17 per cent less than their white male counterparts; Pakistani/Bangladeshi non-graduate men are paid 14% less. 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· Inequality & poverty How unequal is the UK – and should we care? 8 November 2017 by David Willetts David Willetts’s slides from the Royal Statistical Society Cathie Marsh Lecture, exploring recent trends in UK living standards and inequality, specifically inequality between generations and between graduates and non-graduates. READ MORE
Living standards· Inequality & poverty· Social mobility Diverse outcomes: living standards by ethnicity 7 August 2017 by Adam Corlett This briefing note looks at how typical household incomes have differed by ethnicity, given that around one fifth of the population self-report their ethnicity as something other than White British. While not an attempt to offer comprehensive analysis, we also explore some of the causes, including differences in the labour market, pointing to the need for further work. 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· 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· Inequality & poverty A poverty of information: assessing the government’s new child poverty focus and future trends 7 October 2015 by David Finch Measures announced at the Summer Budget are expected to significantly increase the number of children (and households) living in poverty (households with less than 60 per cent of median income). Despite positive action on low pay, cuts to working age benefits mean that most of this increase is expected to be among those living 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
