Labour market· Low pay· Intergenerational Centre No snakes, but no ladders: Young people, employment, and the low skills trap at the bottom of the contemporary service economy 27 March 2012 by Steven Roberts In recent years, research and policy activity has primarily been concerned with the numbers, experiences and trajectories of apprentices and university students, or with the lives of ‘spectacular’, more obviously economically marginalised groups of young people who are entrenched in issues of social exclusion and deprivation. Many young people with level two and level three … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public spending· Economy and public finances Detailed post-2012 Budget analysis 25 March 2012 by Matthew Whittaker Detailed analysis of the 2012 Budget by the Resolution Foundation. It includes: the impact of the main upcoming changes to tax, tax credits and benefits compares the impact of changes to the personal tax allowance and tax credits the impact on four different families. READ MORE
Labour market The Changing Shape of the UK Job Market and its Implications for the Bottom Half of Earners 1 March 2012 by Craig Holmes and Ken Mayhew Oxford academics Craig Holmes and Professor Ken Mayhew, investigate the idea that in recent years the UK labour market has split into high-wage “lovely” jobs and low-wage “lousy” jobs, while jobs in the middle have disappeared. They find that while many middle level ‘routine’ occupations such as process operators in industrial plants have indeed disappeared, … Continued READ MORE
Productivity & industrial strategy· Economic growth Decoupling of Wage Growth and Productivity Growth? Myth and Reality 16 February 2012 by John Van Reenen and João Paulo Pessoa A closer look at the decoupling of wage growth and productivity growth: Pessoa and Van Reenen distinguish between ‘gross’ and ‘net’ decoupling and examine the trends of both in the US and the UK. This report forms part of the Resolution Foundation’s work for its Commission on Living Standards. Visit the Commission’s website www.livingstandards.org to find … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The price of motherhood: women and part-time work 9 February 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson British women are paying a shockingly high price for motherhood as they are forced into lower-skilled, part-time work after having children, according to the findings of our new survey with Netmums. The poll of over 1,600 part-time working mothers revealed almost half (48%) of mothers on low to middle incomes take a lower-skilled part time … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Living standards· 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
Tax 2012 Personal Allowance Tax Changes 27 December 2011 by Matthew Whittaker The income tax personal allowance is set to increase to £8,105 in April 2012, rather than the £7,900 it would have been if increased in line with September’s RPI. But small changes across tax credits mean losses for many low to middle income households. Read our analysis of the changes to the personal allowance and … Continued READ MORE
Housing Priced Out 27 December 2011 by Donald Hirsch and James Plunkett and Jacqueline Beckhelling New analysis shows that the rising cost of essentials had already wiped out most of the gains in living standards made in the early 2000s by families on low and modest incomes, even before the recession began, with increases in the price of food, fuel and other basics greatly outstripping general inflation in recent years. READ MORE
Childcare· Welfare On your marks: Measuring the school readiness of children in low-to-middle income families 14 December 2011 by Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook The extent to which children start school ready and able to learn can have a long-term impact on their likelihood of success in education and employment. It is well known that children from the poorest backgrounds are already falling behind their more affluent peers at the start of school. But little is known about the … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The Missing Million: The potential for female employment to raise living standards in low to middle income Britain 10 December 2011 by James Plunkett The rise of female employment has been a central chapter of the story of living standards in the past 40 years. Yet even while reliance on women’s work has grown, the absolute pace of growth has faltered. After rising 7.4 percentage points in the 1980s, the UK female participation rate rose just 1.4 percentage points … Continued READ MORE
Housing Renting in the dark 8 December 2011 by Louisa Darian Tenants are being let down by an unregulated lettings market, with significant upfront costs, variable fees and a lack of transparency around charges. In a mystery shopping exercise of letting agents in three cities, the range and type of fees charged varied significantly; for example, administrative fees ranged from £95 to £375. Unlike estate agents, letting … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Living standards· 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
Economic growth When does economic growth benefit people on low to middle incomes – and why? 21 November 2011 by Lane Kenworthy For many of the world’s rich countries, the most important challenge at the moment is returning to robust economic growth. At the time of writing, there remains great uncertainty about the pace and path of recovery. Eventually, though, growth will return. This report asks a longer term question: when growth does return, to what degree … Continued READ MORE
Childcare· Welfare Childcare support and the hours trap: the Universal Credit 14 November 2011 by Donald Hirsch The Government recently announced the terms under which childcare costs will be supported as part of Universal Credit from 2013. It has made an extra £300m available, compared to present spending levels. This briefing updates the earlier briefing Childcare support and the hours trap, published in May 2011, to show the impact of the government’s … 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
Labour market· Low pay· Pay Low Pay Britain 2011 2 October 2011 by Lee Savage On 1 October 2011, the National Minimum Wage rose from £5.93 to £6.08, giving a helping hand to families in the face of rising living costs. But there are still 5 million workers – 20% of all employees – earning less than the Living Wage which is designed to provide a ‘minimum acceptable quality of … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay Snakes and Ladders 22 September 2011 by Lee Savage Snakes and Ladders investigates the factors which influence an individual’s chances of moving up the earnings ladder and finds that a person’s prospects for earnings mobility are influenced by their gender, whether they work part time, and where they live. READ MORE
Housing Making a Rented House a Home: Housing solutions for ‘generation rent’ 8 August 2011 by Vidhya Alakeson Low-to-middle income households are likely to be shut out of home ownership for a lifetime. High average first-time buyer house prices and more restricted loan-to-value mortgage advances mean that the average low-to-middle income household putting aside 5 per cent of their disposable income each year would have taken 31 years to save a deposit in 2010, … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Living standards· 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
Childcare· Welfare Childcare: failing to meet the needs of working parents 17 June 2011 by Vidhya Alakeson Childcare provision has failed to keep up with changing working patterns, with nearly 70% of all working parents now working ‘atypical’ hours. Many are struggling to find suitable childcare provision as a result. The report shows that at least one partner in 75% of families on low-to-middle incomes and in over 90% of families on higher … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Living standards· 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
Budgets & fiscal events· Public spending· Economy and public finances Budget 2011: the impact on low-to-middle earners 26 April 2011 by Matthew Whittaker Changes in Budget 2011 will have a significant impact on low-to-middle earners. This briefing note does four things: Outlines the pre-announced tax and benefit changes taking force from April 2011; provides an assessment of the new measures announced in Budget 2011;lLooks at prospects for real wage growth under the macroeconomic forecasts set out in the … Continued READ MORE
Childcare· Welfare Childcare Tax Credit Survey 15 March 2011 A new survey of over 2,000 working mothers has revealed that over half will be forced to stop work or significantly reduce their working hours, as a result of cuts in the level of support for childcare costs, due to start this April. The survey was carried out by Netmums, in partnership with the Resolution … Continued 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
