Household debt Consumer debt in the UK is down 10%. The bad news? Utility bill arrears are up Britons have been borrowing less since Covid, but people on lower incomes are falling behind on the rent 3 March 2024 by Torsten Bell It’s important to worry about the right things. Interest rates are up, sparking worries about our debts – in my case, the mortgage. Consumer debt (credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans) is surging, we’re told. But the truth is, consumer debt levels are down. New Resolution Foundation research shows them at their lowest since at least … Continued READ MORE
Pensions & savings· Wealth & assets· Intergenerational Centre Britain’s inheritance boom could further decouple people’s retirement age from their state pension age It’s inheritance and where you live which are the barriers to retirement 31 January 2023 by Molly Broome The UK’s state pension age is going up – and perhaps faster than expected. The age at which you can draw the state pension is due to rise from 66 to 67 by 2028. And the Government is now reportedly considering bringing forward the rise to 68 from 2046 to the 2030s, as part of … Continued READ MORE
Pensions & savings· Wealth & assets Expand the Help to Save scheme to help the poorest 24 January 2023 by Jack Leslie It would be hard to miss the fact that the UK economy is currently in bad shape. A 40-year high in inflation, falling incomes and ever more industrial action are just some of the features of today’s Britain. But these problems have been made worse by a too often overlooked issue: many families do not … Continued READ MORE
Household debt· Housing A loan scheme for renters could stop tenants from being made homeless 18 February 2021 by Lindsay Judge The protracted length of the coronavirus crisis has led to rent arrears reaching twice the level observed going into the crisis. In January 2021, we estimate that over 750,000 families were behind with their housing payments, 300,000 of which contained dependent children. Before the pandemic hit, many families spent a high share of their income … Continued READ MORE
Inequality & poverty· Wealth & assets The Child Trust Fund comes of age It presents a unique opportunity to learn about the difference that asset ownership can make 29 August 2020 by Gavin Kelly With little fanfare the UK is about to witness a mass experiment in the extension of access to capital. Other nations may have sovereign wealth funds, and some have experimented with universal basic incomes, but the UK is the first to create a citizen’s endowment for all young adults. From next week those turning eighteen … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Wealth & assets Any further questions? From 'Weathering the storm: How wealth shapes the ability of families to face this economic crisis' 22 June 2020 by George Bangham We often have more questions submitted for our event Q&A sessions than we’re able to answer. Where this is the case, we’ll endeavour to respond to a selection of the most interesting or most representative questions that went unanswered. The questions below were submitted to our panel for the event Weathering the storm: How wealth … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Pensions & savings· Wealth & assets In this coronavirus crisis, do families have enough savings to make ends meet? 3 April 2020 by George Bangham In Britain two crises are unfolding in parallel, while policy makers strive to keep count. On the first – the public health crisis – they are all too aware how many people are losing their lives due to the virus. On the second crisis – the economic one – the data is more limited, whether … Continued READ MORE
Low pay· Pay· Wealth & assets· Political parties and elections Question Time’s £80K man was wrong about the top 5%. But the super-rich are on another planet Those in his earning bracket have far more in common with workers on average pay than they do with the 1% 28 November 2019 by Torsten Bell f you live in Bolton and earn more than £80,000, you’re rich compared with your neighbours. Really rich. The average pay for all workers is just £22,000 and one in four earns less than £15,000. And yes, you’re still rich among the country as a whole: only 5% of earners make more than £80,000 – … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Housing Who owns Britain’s £13tn wealth? 2 July 2019 by George Bangham Britain is in the middle of a decades-long wealth boom. Total wealth now stands at a record £12.8tn, or almost 13 million millions. But where you live, and when you were born plays a big part in how much of that wealth you are likely to own. In the 1960s and 1970s, Britain’s collective wealth … Continued READ MORE
Pensions & savings· Wealth & assets· Intergenerational Centre More ambition, less risk – building on the success of auto-enrolment 4 April 2019 by David Willetts and Laura Gardiner We often find it harder to celebrate policy successes than decry policy failures. So you might have missed a policy success which we are marking this week. We are about to have completed the successful initial rolling-out of automatic enrolment into occupational pension saving. Millions of employees will enjoy higher living standards in retirement as … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Tax How wealth taxes can raise billions more without scaring any horses 3 January 2019 by Torsten Bell and Adam Corlett Raising taxes is never easy. Raising taxes with the government’s slim parliamentary majority is harder still. Raising taxes on wealth in those circumstances, given our diverging senses of fairness is… not a walk in the park. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need doing, and the good news is that significant progress can be made … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Housing· Intergenerational Centre The Bank of Mum and Dad pays out at least three times in life 4 December 2018 by Torsten Bell Times change, Britain changes, and it doesn’t stop changing just because we’re all naturally obsessed by Brexit. Our need to understand and respond to those changes is as big as ever – and nowhere is that more true than in the growing importance in our society of wealth, which has risen from three times our … Continued READ MORE
Inequality & poverty· Cities and regions· Wealth & assets Regional wealth inequality: a nation divided 1 September 2018 by Conor D’Arcy On Monday, families across the country will be feeling a mix of excitement, anxiety and relief as kids go back to school (with Scotland having already gone through it). Experiences that unite every corner of the UK feel rarer these days, with talk of division and left-behind places common. Differences between South Shields and South … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Tax Entrepreneurs’ Relief has cost £22 billion over the past 10 years. Was it worth it? 29 August 2018 by Adam Corlett The hunt is on for extra tax revenues. First came the announcement of an NHS funding boost, back in June. Now, the Chancellor has the harder task of working out where he will find the more than £20 billion required. Some is likely to come from higher borrowing, and better than expected public finance figures … Continued READ MORE
Social mobility· Wealth & assets· Intergenerational Centre Widening inequalities between generations are impeding social mobility 8 May 2018 by Fahmida Rahman Intergenerational progress – the principle that each generation will do better than the one before – has come to a halt. Millennials in their late 20s are earning less than generation X did 15 years earlier, own half as many homes as the baby boomers, and shoulder greater levels of risk than previous generations. It’s … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Tax· Intergenerational Centre There’s something off-key about our approach to inheritance tax 2 May 2018 by Matthew Whittaker It takes something to be crowned Britain’s most hated tax – a bit like being the UK’s worst ever Eurovision entry – but that is the unwanted title held by inheritance tax. It doesn’t help that it’s a tax that’s unavoidably associated with the death of loved ones. And complexity is undoubtedly a problem too. … Continued READ MORE
Pensions & savings· Wealth & assets· Welfare· Intergenerational Centre Now’s not the time for auto-pilot 6 April 2018 by Matthew Whittaker and Stephen Clarke Straightforward policy successes are a rare achievement in government and need celebrating when they arrive, lest we forget that policy matters. The recent sizeable gains the UK has made on private pension saving as a result of the introduction of auto-enrolment are therefore a clear cause for cheer. But challenges remain, starting with the increase … Continued READ MORE
Social care· Wealth & assets· Welfare· Intergenerational Centre Baby boomers are going to have to pay more tax on their wealth to fund health and social care 5 March 2018 by David Willetts In the past decade a new issue has entered British politics – fairness between the generations. It straddles the conventional political divide. The Prime Minister has spoken of “a growing divide between a more prosperous older generation and a struggling younger generation”. And the leader of the Labour Party has argued that future generations should … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Intergenerational Centre How to solve the UK’s growing wealth gaps 8 February 2018 by Torsten Bell This year, average wages are set to be flat. British households, meanwhile, are in the middle of a projected four-year income stagnation. And our productivity has barely risen since the 2008 financial crisis. Pay, incomes, productivity – that all are flatlining is the defining feature of our economics and our politics today. There’s a reason … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets Seven key takeaways on the level, profile and distribution of Britain’s £12.8 trillion of wealth 1 February 2018 by Conor D’Arcy We get monthly updates on pay and authoritative data on household incomes every year. But we have to wait two years for a detailed breakdown of what’s happening to wealth across Britain. Here are seven key takeaways from the latest data published today and what it tells us about changes in the level, profile and … Continued READ MORE
Pensions & savings· Intergenerational Centre Auto-enrolment has had a great beginning. But will it have a happy ending? 18 December 2017 by David Finch We hear a lot about good policy plans gone wrong (Universal Credit springs to mind) for obvious reasons. But we ought to listen (and learn) from successes too. Auto-enrolment into workplace pension savings is the obvious candidate for this cheery policy tale, though the story has only just begun. Over nine million have signed up … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Demographics· Pensions & savings What could the latest life expectancy projections mean for the State Pension Age? 5 December 2017 by David Finch At the end of last week, the ONS published the latest future projections showing its best estimate of how long we can expect to live. We don’t automatically associate our living standards with factors like health or how many years of life we may have. But just like income, life expectancy is an important indicator … Continued READ MORE
Household debt The Bank has increased borrowing costs, but is personal debt bubbling over? 5 November 2017 by Matthew Whittaker Following a period of double digit growth in consumer credit over the last year or so, there have been some concerns about the reappearance of a debt bubble in the UK economy. In truth though, household borrowing currently resembles less of a bubble and more of two day-old helium balloon: partially deflated and looking worse … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Housing· Intergenerational Centre Homes sweet homes – the rise of multiple property ownership in Britain 19 August 2017 by Laura Gardiner When is a house not a home? Increasingly often, it turns out. Be it a holiday cottage for weekend getaways, a pied-à-terre in the city, a flat rented out for a bit of extra income, or an empty shell of bricks and mortar working harder for your savings than an ISA possibly could – multiple … Continued READ MORE
Household debt Time to put away the credit card 13 July 2017 by Toby Phillips The squeeze is on. National accounts data last month confirmed that household incomes have been falling for the last three quarters. Yesterday’s labour market statistics showed that wages continue to lose ground to inflation. And today new survey data from the Bank the England shows that credit availability is tightening. Today’s survey is the latest … Continued READ MORE
