Uprating benefits in line with earnings next year could save £3 billion but would set the typical incomes of the poorest fifth of working-age families back to levels not seen since 2000-01, according to new analysis published today (Thursday) by the Resolution Foundation. With the Government considering various ways of reducing the deficit in the … Continued

A tight labour market has seen pay growth strengthen and unemployment fall to a near-50-year-low. But the workforce continues to shrink, driven by economic inactivity due to long-term ill-health rising to a record 2.49 million, highlighting the dilemma facing policy makers, the Resolution Foundation said today (Tuesday) in response to the latest ONS labour market … Continued

A huge increase in the number of working-age people with a disability (up 2.3 million over the past decade), coupled with rising employment rates among disabled people, mean that the share of workers with a disability has grown by 50 per cent since 2013 to around one-in-seven of workers, according to new Resolution Foundation research … Continued

The richest 5 per cent of households still stand to gain £3,500 on average next year from the tax cuts announced in the Chancellor’s recent Fiscal Statement – almost 40 times as much as the average £90 cash gain for the poorest fifth of households – despite the decision to scrap the abolition of the … Continued

The Government’s Energy Price Guarantee and £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme discount means that the average household will see annual bills increase by just 7 per cent – from £1,971 in April to £2,100 – when the energy price cap rises today. But even with hugely welcome intervention on this scale, millions of families across … Continued

The Chancellor’s fiscal statement last week and the severe market fall-out from it – including a plunging pound, rising interest rates and emergency intervention from the Bank of England – will force him to make tough policy choices, including big spending cuts, in his promised Medium-Term Fiscal Plan due in less than eight weeks’ time, … Continued

The market’s reaction to last Friday’s fiscal statement will have a material impact on household incomes; in the short-term through higher inflation; in the medium-term through higher mortgage payments; and, in the long term as higher borrowing exacerbates tax and spending trade-offs, the Resolution Foundation said today (Monday). The size of the Government’s fiscal package … Continued

The Chancellor’s huge package of personal tax cuts confirmed yesterday will disproportionately benefit London and the South East – with households in these regions standing to gain to three times as much on average (£1,600) as those living in Wales, the North East and Yorkshire (£500) next year – according to the Resolution Foundation’s overnight … Continued

The Chancellor’s £45 billion package of tax cuts announced today, the largest in a single fiscal event since Anthony Barber’s ill-fated 1972 Budget, will boost growth in the short-term but raise interest rates and see an additional £411 billion of borrowing over five years, the Resolution Foundation said in response to today’s fiscal statement. The … Continued

Commenting on the Chancellor’s announcement this afternoon (Thursday) that the Government will reverse the recent 1.25 per cent increase in the National Insurance contribution (NICs) rate from 6 November this year, Karl Handscomb, Senior Economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “While raising National Insurance was a flawed way to fund social care provision that would … Continued

The Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme strikes the right balance of tackling businesses’ soaring bills, while avoiding offering support for businesses who don’t need it, which would have been the case had grants been offered instead of reductions in the price of energy targeted at those firms exposed to recent cost surges, the Resolution Foundation … Continued

Private renters’ average floor space per person in England has fallen by 16 per cent over the past 20 years – floorspace collectively equivalent to the size of Nottingham – while rents as a share of income have remained stubbornly high, according to new Resolution Foundation research published today (Saturday). The Foundation’s latest Housing Outlook … Continued

Britain’s inflation surge eased in August – falling for the first time since September 2021 – but it remains higher for low-income households, and will remain elevated for everyone well into next year, the Resolution Foundation said today (Wednesday) in response to the latest ONS prices data. CPI inflation fell from 10.1 per cent to … Continued

Britain recorded its sharpest real pay fall since 1977 this summer. But with nominal pay growth strengthening and the Energy Price Guarantee set to reduce inflation by around four percentage points relative to what it might otherwise have been, the depth of Britain’s pay squeeze may bottom out this autumn, the Resolution Foundation said today … Continued

Liz Truss first major act as Prime Minister has been to set out an energy support package to hugely reduce the scale of the living standards catastrophe this winter by covering three-quarters of the rise in energy bills, but households will still get poorer over the course of the parliament, the Resolution Foundation said today … Continued

Real household disposable incomes are on course to fall by 10 per cent over this year and next – the deepest living standards squeeze in a century – while the number of people living in absolute poverty is set to rise by three million, highlighting the scale of the task facing the new Prime Minister … Continued

Ofgem’s announcement today (Friday) that the energy price cap is set to increase from £1,971 to £3,549 this October, and is likely to rise further in January, means that monthly energy bills could be three times higher this winter than last year, at around £500 a month, according to new Resolution Foundation analysis. The analysis, … Continued

The new Prime Minister will need to introduce radical new policy support – such as energy bill freezes and solidarity taxes, or unprecedented social tariffs costing tens of billions of pounds – to prevent the deepening energy bills crisis becoming a serious threat to families’ physical and financial health this winter, according to a new … Continued

CPI inflation hit double digits (10.1 per cent) in July, with Resolution Foundation analysis of the latest data today (Wednesday) showing that it was even higher for the poorest tenth of households – at 10.9 per cent. Another significant increase in inflation from 9.4 per cent in June to 10.1 per cent in July was … Continued

Real average weekly earnings fell by 3 per cent in the three months to June, the biggest fall since 1977, the Resolution Foundation said today (Tuesday) in response to the latest ONS labour market statistics. The latest data is dominated by near double-digit inflation, which according to the Foundation’s analysis of longer-term ONS and Bank … Continued

This winter, low-income households will have to reduce their spending by three times as much as high-income households in order to afford their energy bills, according to a new Resolution Foundation briefing released today (Sunday) – which focuses on how bills in Jan-March 2023 are now set to be an annualised £4,266, rather than the … Continued

Ahead of the Bank of England’s next Monetary Policy Report published tomorrow, the Resolution Foundation published new analysis – In the dread of winter – looking at how the outlook for inflation has changed since the Bank of England’s last Monetary Policy Report (MPR) in May. The briefing finds that: Contrary to many reports, global … Continued

Rising food and fuel prices sent CPI inflation to a fresh 40-year high of 9.4 per cent in June, and to 10.6 per cent for the poorest households, the Resolution Foundation said in response to the latest ONS inflation data today (Wednesday). The latest inflation rise was driven by the sharpest single month rise in … Continued

Soaring levels of wealth across the UK, coupled with high levels of wealth inequality, mean that the wealth gap between the top and middle tenth of households in the UK has grown to a record £1.2 million per adult, according to new Resolution Foundation analysis published today (Wednesday). Arrears Fears, the Foundation’s third annual wealth … Continued

The inflation-led cost-of-living crisis is causing a huge fall in the value of real wages, but has not yet hit the jobs market as older workers in particular are returning to work in the face of rising cost pressures, the Resolution Foundation said today (Tuesday) in response to the latest ONS labour market statistics. The … Continued