Incomes· Living standards· 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
Welfare No Clear Benefit 30 January 2013 by Matthew Pennycook and Alex Hurrell Low-income families will see their council tax bills rise by up to £600 a year from April. As a result of council tax benefit reform, No Clear Benefit shows that three-quarters of local authorities are set to demand increased payments from the 3.2 million poorest working-age households who currently pay either no council tax or a reduced … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay· Living Wage Beyond the Bottom Line: The challenges and opportunities of a living wage 20 January 2013 by Matthew Pennycook and Kayte Lawton Beyond the Bottom Line, a joint report from the Resolution Foundation and IPPR, presents the first full economic analysis of the living wage in the UK, including: modelling its potential impact on labour demand and considering the potential costs of living wages for employers; analysing which workers and families benefit most from the living wage; … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Living standards· 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
Childcare· Welfare The costs of childcare after housing costs 24 December 2012 by Alex Hurrell It is well known that the UK has some of the most expensive childcare in the OECD, accounting for a third of household income in some cases. New analysis published by the Resolution Foundation shows that the picture is even bleaker for families than we generally assume. The analysis looks at the costs of childcare … Continued READ MORE
Household debt· Wealth & assets On borrowed time? Dealing with household debt in an era of stagnant incomes 23 December 2012 by Matthew Whittaker On borrowed time? examines how and why household debt grew in the pre-crisis years, before turning to study the current scale and distribution of exposure to debt across households. Finally, the report looks at the link between household debt and prospects for economic growth, setting out a range of broad policy considerations that will frame our … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public spending· Economy and public finances Resolution Foundation analysis of the 2012 Autumn Statement 7 December 2012 by Matthew Whittaker In this note we look in more detail at the distributional impact of this welfare cut, in combination with the decision to increase the personal tax allowance by a further £235 in April 2013 and the announcement that the higher rate threshold would increase by 1 per cent a year from April 2014. Having considered … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Gaining from growth: The final report of the Commission on Living Standards 31 October 2012 by James Plunkett Millions of households are heading for a long period of stagnant living standards unless bold steps are taken to ensure that growth over the next decade is broadly shared. Even with a return to steady growth, it’s now entirely possible living standards for a large swath of low and middle households will be no higher … Continued READ MORE
Childcare· Welfare Counting the Costs of Childcare 28 October 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson and Alex Hurrell Counting the Costs of Childcare finds that high childcare costs mean that a woman working full-time could bring home as little as £4 a week in extra pay. In the most extreme case, a second earner working full-time at the minimum wage in a family where her partner is already working full-time at the same … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Welfare Conditions Uncertain 5 October 2012 by Matthew Whittaker and Matthew Pennycook Conditions Uncertain finds that almost 1.2 million low-paid workers entitled to support under Universal Credit will have to look for extra work or face the risk of having payments withdrawn. The report reveals for the first time how many working people are likely to be affected by a new regime which will require the lowest-paid … Continued READ MORE
Low pay· Pay Low Pay Britain 2012 29 September 2012 by Matthew Whittaker and Matthew Pennycook One in five British workers – just over five million employees – are low-paid as the national minimum wage falls in real terms for the third consecutive year. Low Pay Britain 2012 shows that the nation’s share of low-paid work has grown steadily over the past 30 years to 21 per cent – one of the highest … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay Trends in wages and incomes: 2003-2008 21 September 2012 by Alex Hurrell Prior to the crash the economy was growing steadily, with real GDP per capita growth of 7.0 per cent between 2003 and 2008, equivalent to an average annual growth rate of 1.4 per cent. Yet the benefits of this relatively strong economic performance did not filter down to the average worker; after accounting for inflation, … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay What a drag: The chilling impact of unemployment on real wages 19 September 2012 by Paul Gregg and Steve Machin Real wage growth in the UK labour market, since around 2003, has slowed down and stagnated. This report documents the nature of real wage changes across the wage distribution over the last three decades, showing that the recent period of stagnant real wage growth represents a distinct break of trend that pre-dates the onset of … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Shrinking Support: what Universal Credit indexation means for living standards 11 September 2012 by Matthew Whittaker In Budget 2010, the Chancellor announced that the uprating of benefits, tax credits and public service pensions would, from April 2011, be made with reference to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Prices Index (RPI) or Rossi Index. Because CPI tends to give a lower measure of inflation than the other two … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Unfinished Business: Barriers and opportunities for older workers 8 August 2012 by Giselle Cory The UK could miss a historic opportunity to boost employment among the over 50s. This new analysis finds that the UK ranks 15th out of 34 OECD countries, for older workers, lagging the five top countries by over fifteen percentage points. Closing this gap would mean around 1.5 million more people in work. The report … Continued READ MORE
Tax Fairer by design: efficient tax reform for those on low to middle incomes 31 July 2012 by Paul Johnson The current system of redistribution through taxation and welfare is inefficient and could be reformed to give more support to those on low and middle incomes whilst reducing economic costs according to a new report for the Resolution Foundation Commission on Living Standards. The report, written by Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal … Continued READ MORE
Housing Making Institutional Investment in the Private Rented Sector Work 19 July 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson With one low to middle income family in four shut out of home ownership, there is an urgent need for high quality purpose-built rental homes offering more secure tenancies than typically found in today’s buy to let sector. In a context of significant cuts to public investment in housing, the Resolution Foundation proposes that new … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Up-skilling the middle 5 July 2012 by Anna Vignoles Professor Anna Vignoles looks at skills policy in her report to the Commission on Living Standards. She examines what skills policy can do to help those on low to middle incomes boost their earnings potential. The paper highlights that those in the low to middle income group generally hold low and intermediate skills, which are not in … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Economic growth Time for a Plan C? Slow growth and living standards 28 June 2012 by Gavin Kelly There is an increasingly rich intellectual debate about the risks, or for some the reality, of an extended period of low growth; a so called great stagnation. But, for all this intellectual ferment, there is, alas, only a stunted discussion about what we can do to overcome this challenge, and even less of one about … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Creditworthy: Assessing the impact of tax credits in the last decade and considering what this means for Universal Credit 27 June 2012 by Paul Gregg and Alex Hurrell and Matthew Whittaker Creditworthy assesses the direct and indirect impacts of tax credits, finding that there is no evidence that tax credits hold down low wages. The analysis discredits the assumption that tax credits, available to low and middle income families, enable employers to pay lower wages. Tax credits reach around six million families, providing substantial support for … Continued READ MORE
Housing Housing in Transition: Understanding the dynamics of tenure change 8 June 2012 by Christine Whitehead and Chihiro Udagawa and Peter Williams and Connie Tang England, traditionally seen as a nation of homeowners, is experiencing significant change in the types of housing tenure in which people live. The first part of this report looks back at tenure change between 1993/94 and 2009/10, using the Government’s Survey of English Housing and its successor the English Housing Survey. This historical look breaks the … Continued READ MORE
Household debt· Wealth & assets Inequality, debt and growth 14 May 2012 by Salvatore Morelli and Paolo Lucchino Inequality, debt and growth shows that low to middle income households were reliant on borrowing to fund much of their spending for more than a decade before the financial crisis. This report reveals the full extent of the increase in borrowing and deterioration in household savings rates in the run up to the 2008/09 crisis, … Continued READ MORE
Pay· Living Wage What price a living wage? 7 May 2012 by Matthew Pennycook Paying a living wage is affordable for big companies in UK banking, construction, computing and food production sectors, according to this new report jointly published by the think tanks Resolution Foundation and IPPR. This new analysis shows that the average increase in the wage bill for listed companies in these sectors would be about 1 … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Minimum Wage: Maximum Impact 17 April 2012 by Alan Manning This paper steps back from the current annual debate about the appropriate but small rise in the value of the minimum wage to ask a bolder question: are there more radical reforms of the minimum wage that could raise living standards in the years ahead? In part, we are interested in learning what happens in … 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
