Covid-19· Fiscal policy· Economy and public finances· Tax Fiscal multi-tasking 12 November 2020 by Torsten Bell Multi-tasking can be hard. Ask any parent that survived lockdown by combining work with something resembling home schooling. But it’s also a fact of life, so the trick is to manage multiple objectives well, not wish them away. This is true for people and our Government. Indeed, fiscal multi-tasking is what the 2020s are all … Continued READ MORE
Ventures Introducing the Workertech Partnership Backing a new wave of innovators who will harness technology to improve the prospects, power and choices of workers 10 November 2020 by Louise Marston The world of work was already changing rapidly before the crisis, with rising use of automation and increasing levels of insecure work. Coronavirus has highlighted how exposed many people are to changes in hours, lack of health and safety protections, and how few opportunities there are for flexible employment that works for families. The coronavirus … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Labour market The Chancellor has prevented a grim winter of redundancies – but has failed to fix the faults with his jobs support package 6 November 2020 by Mike Brewer On Thursday, Rishi Sunak announced that the Job Retention Scheme – where employees can be put on furlough and still get 80 per cent of their wages covered by the government – will continue to the end of March. Self-employed workers can get another three-month grant of 80 per cent of their pre-crisis profits. There … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19 Worse for some The economic pain is being felt differently by different people. And for many of them, rock bottom is still to come 23 October 2020 by Torsten Bell The pan in pandemic is a dangerous prefix. While the virus now straddles the globe, those three letters can give the impression of an equality of impact that is very far from the truth. On the health side this is blindingly obvious, with death rates from the virus climbing sharply with age and, as in … Continued READ MORE
History tells us to brace for 1990s-style tax rises rather than spending cuts 21 October 2020 by Torsten Bell A common human flaw is to believe the future will look like our immediate past. If something unusual has happened we conclude it’s likely to happen again. The person unlucky enough to be struck by lightning spends more time than the rest of us worrying about storms. That a lucky gambler thinks they’ll get lucky … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Prices & consumption· Intergenerational Centre The current consumption crisis will be important for the future jobs market recovery 16 October 2020 by Maja Gustafsson Britain’s jobs crisis is concentrated in low-paying sectors like hospitality, retail, arts and leisure that have been hardest hit by lockdown and ongoing social distancing measures. In 2019, 32 per cent of 18-29-year-old employees worked in these sectors. But those who tend to spend the greatest proportion of their disposable income on these more pleasurable … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Intergenerational Centre We must not let coronavirus exacerbate Britain’s intergenerational inequalities still further 8 October 2020 by David Willetts One of the biggest challenges the Government faces is to offer young people the same kind of opportunities that the Boomers enjoyed when we were young. The pay of young workers is no higher than it was ten or fifteen years ago. And getting started on the housing ladder is much harder – though the … 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· Labour market Millions of furloughed workers have returned to work – but support for hard-hit sectors will be needed beyond October Analysing the HMRC Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme data 21 August 2020 by Nye Cominetti This morning, HMRC published its latest round of statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (JRS). For the first time, we have a time series of the number of furloughed workers, as opposed to the cumulative total, meaning we can see how use of the scheme has evolved since the start of April. Here are … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Welfare The UK should not weaken safety nets mid-storm As more workers are laid-off this autumn, the grim reality of meagre support will become clear 11 August 2020 by Gavin Kelly Resisting pressure to spend more on disadvantaged groups is seen as part of the job by battle-hardened officials in the UK Treasury. But stripping away benefit increases that have only just been introduced is rather different and doing so in the midst of an economic collapse would, to put it mildly, be something extraordinary. Yet … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Budgets & fiscal events· Economy and public finances Sunak’s crisis-fighting measures: time to scale up? The Chancellor’s policy announcements are generating wide discussion but are the sums commensurate with the depth of the downturn? 13 July 2020 by James Smith This week the Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled his “Summer Economic Update.” In case it’s not clear, this wasn’t technically a Budget. That said, it still contained more policy than all but three of the fiscal events we’ve had since the onset of the financial crisis more than a decade ago. So, it was a big … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Labour market Any further questions? From 'The Full Monty: Facing up to the scale of the COVID-19 jobs crisis' 29 June 2020 by Hannah Slaughter 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 The Full Monty: Facing up … Continued READ MORE
Ventures Introducing Resolution Ventures How we're using social investment to complement our policy and analytical work 23 June 2020 by Louise Marston An introduction from our Director of Ventures Today the Resolution Foundation launches a whole new section of our website: Resolution Ventures. Here we will be talking about the social investment and ventures work of the Foundation. In 2017 the Resolution Trust started running a pilot social investment programme in workertech, in partnership with Accenture and … 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· Low pay· Pay Any further questions? From 'From loud claps to hard cash A new settlement for Britain’s low-paid workers' 3 June 2020 by Nye Cominetti 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 From loud claps to hard … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19 Any further questions? From The safety net in action? Universal Credit’s role in the crisis and the recovery 28 May 2020 by Mike Brewer and Karl Handscomb 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 The safety net in action? … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Labour market Three big decisions for the Chancellor on the future of the Job Retention Scheme 28 May 2020 by Daniel Tomlinson The Chancellor will be announcing details for ‘Phase 2’ of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (JRS) later today or tomorrow. With 8.4 million jobs furloughed – one-third of all private sector employees – any changes to the JRS will have a big impact both on the scale of the unemployment crisis and on the speed … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Labour market Five things we’ve learned from today’s labour market data 19 May 2020 by Hannah Slaughter and Nye Cominetti This morning the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the first major set of labour market data that covers the lockdown period, with data from April on vacancies, claimant unemployment, and employee jobs. Of course, the scale of the crisis has been clear for some time in other data – including Universal Credit claims and … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Skills Any further questions? From the event 'The corona class of 2020: How to support young people leaving education amid the crisis' 12 May 2020 by Kathleen Henehan 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 The corona class of 2020: … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19 Churchill, the crisis and a better deal for Britain’s low paid If we are to have a Churchillian response to the crisis, let’s have the right one 6 May 2020 by Gavin Kelly It was inevitable, perhaps, that the current crisis would result in daily nods to our foremost leader during a time of national crisis. Mr Johnson, a biographer of Churchill, was always going to succumb. And during the PM’s illness a range of lesser known politicians reached for Churchill as they strained to rise to the … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Housing Government has further to go to protect livelihoods during this crisis Steps taken by the government to protect individuals and the wider economy are welcome, but gaps remain 8 April 2020 by Daniel Tomlinson This downturn is very different from the last. The 2008 crisis originated in the financial services sector, rippling out to the rest of the economy and leading to an increase in unemployment of just over one million between 2008 and 2011. This time is different. The UK, and much of the world, is about to … 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
Covid-19· Labour market Unprecedented support for employees’ wages last week has been followed up by equally significant, and even more generous, support for the self-employed. But gaps remain 27 March 2020 by Torsten Bell and Mike Brewer and Laura Gardiner and Karl Handscomb and Daniel Tomlinson Yesterday, the Chancellor announced that last week’s pledge to underwrite 80 per cent of the wages of employees without work to do during this crisis is being matched with significant grants to the self-employed. This is an important addition to existing plans to support employees, and in many ways a more generous offer. The Self-Employed … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Living standards· Incomes· Inequality & poverty New data shows households were struggling even before coronavirus 26 March 2020 by Adam Corlett Today we got the best data yet on the state of Britain’s household finances going into the present crisis, and – given that the impact of this shutdown and recession will be unequally felt – it was important that we also got more information on how particular groups were faring. Neither perspective is reassuring. There was no growth in typical incomes between 2016-17 and 2018-19 The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)’s new, detailed household … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Incomes· Living standards· Prices & consumption Family spending before the coronavirus crisis helps us to understand its potential impact 23 March 2020 by Fahmida Rahman Last week the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its annual rundown of how UK households spent their money. These statistics provide the most detailed and direct insight into current living standards, and with a coronavirus-driven economic crisis in the making, they also give us a guide as to how we might expect things to … Continued READ MORE
