Prices & consumption Paying the price How the inflation surge has reshaped the British economy 17 May 2024 by Nye Cominetti and Ian Mulheirn and Cara Pacitti and Simon Pittaway and James Smith The UK has experienced its highest inflation for more than 40 years, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But next week will bring the welcome news that inflation has returned close to the 2 per cent target for the first time since July 2021. In this briefing note we take a step back and look at … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption From merry Christmas to a messy new year What 2024 has in store 29 December 2023 by Torsten Bell 2024 is going to be messy, for our living standards not just politics. The past two years have been dominated by rising energy and food bills, with everyone affected. It will be very different in 2024. Inflation falling back faster than expected means many will benefit from rising real wages. But politicians tempted to claim … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption· Pay· Housing· Wellbeing and mental health Pressure on pay, prices and properties How families were faring in October 2023 14 December 2023 by Mike Brewer and Felicia Odamtten and Hannah Slaughter and Hannah Slocombe and James Smith Two years into the cost of living crisis, inflation has finally turned a corner. The headline rate of CPI inflation has fallen from its October 2022 peak of 11.1 per cent to 4.6 per cent in October 2023, and the Prime Minister has been able to say that his target of halving inflation in 2023 … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Prices & consumption Food for thought The role of food prices in the cost of living crisis 19 May 2023 by Torsten Bell and James Smith and Lalitha Try The cost of living crisis is often thought of as a cost of energy crisis. That is an understandable, but increasingly inadequate, view. In particular, it understates the growing role of food prices (up by 25 per cent over the past year and a half) in the squeeze on living standards that households – especially … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption Hoping and coping How families were faring in March 2023 27 April 2023 by Molly Broome and Karl Handscomb and Lalitha Try Families in the UK found themselves in the midst of a cost of living crisis over the winter. Inflation has skyrocketed over the past year, with prices still over 10 per cent higher than a year ago. In response to the squeeze, the Government provided £47 billion of support to households in 2022-23, offsetting around … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption The only way is down Assessing the impact of falls in wholesale energy prices on household and public finances 7 February 2023 by Emily Fry and James Smith Huge rises in energy prices through much of 2022 sparked a cost of living crisis with recession-level hits to family (as inflation soared) and public finances (as the state partially protected us from bill rises). But there has finally been some good news with wholesale gas prices for 2023-24 down more than 70 per cent … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption The Living Standards Outlook 2023 9 January 2023 by Mike Brewer and Emily Fry and Lalitha Try To deepen our understanding of where the cost of living crisis leaves Britain, our fifth Living Standards Outlook combines a new survey of 10,000 adults’ experience of the crisis with detailed modelling of household incomes and poverty this year and beyond. READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption· Inequality & poverty Costly differences Living standards for working-age people with disabilities 4 January 2023 by Omar El Dessouky and Charlie McCurdy The cost of living crisis has shone a harsh light on different groups’ ability to deal with fast- rising prices. In this briefing note, we focus on the living standards of people with disabilities, including results from a new survey of just under 8,000 working-age adults, over 2,000 of whom reported a long-term illness or … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Prices & consumption A chilling crisis Policy options to deal with soaring energy prices 25 August 2022 by Mike Brewer and Emily Fry and Karl Handscomb and Jonathan Marshall This briefing note, released just ahead of the announcement of the winter 2022 energy price cap level, looks at the implications of an unprecedented jump in energy costs on low-to-middle income households, stresses the need for urgent and novel policy thinking to lessen this blow, and outlines how this could take shape. READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption· Inequality & poverty Cutting back to keep warm Why low-income households will have to cut back on spending by three times as much as high-income households this winter 15 August 2022 by Karl Handscomb and Jonathan Marshall 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 – a situation that is particularly concerning now that we know energy bills in January-March 2023 are set to be an annualised £4,266, rather than the £2,800 expected earlier this … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Prices & consumption· Economy and public finances· Macroeconomic policy Cap off Understanding the April 2022 inflation release 18 May 2022 by Jack Leslie Inflation reached a 40-year high in April off the back of a sharp rise in energy bills and the highest food price inflation in a decade. These recent drivers of inflation mean that lower-income families are facing the most severe cost pressures, with their inflation rate already hitting double digits. Families are already responding to … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Living standards· Prices & consumption· Inequality & poverty Stressed out April brings an acute squeeze on UK living standards as higher energy bills lead to widespread fuel stress 1 April 2022 by Adam Corlett and Jonathan Marshall April 2022 will see the UK’s cost of living crisis intensify as energy prices jump by more than half overnight, pushing 5 million English households into fuel stress, even accounting for support measures recently announced by the Chancellor. This is not the end, though. Against a backdrop of the highest inflation rate in 40 years … Continued READ MORE
Prices & consumption· Public spending· Inequality & poverty· Economy and public finances The price is right? The April 2022 energy price rise and the Government’s response 4 February 2022 by Adam Corlett and Karl Handscomb and Lindsay Judge and James Smith The Government has opted for universalism and minimising the hit to the public purse in its response to the energy price rise yesterday. The announced measures take the sting out of Ofgem’s £693 rise in the energy price cap in April with a broad-based package of support. All households will get a £200 discount on … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption Higher and higher Averting a looming energy bill crisis 17 January 2022 by Adam Corlett and Lindsay Judge and Jonathan Marshall The higher energy price cap due to be introduced on April 1 will see energy costs jump by more than 50 per cent overnight. As a result, the share of English households experiencing ‘fuel stress’ (i.e. spending more than 10 per cent of their household budget on energy) will triple from 9 per cent to … Continued READ MORE
Universal Credit· Incomes· Living standards· Prices & consumption· Welfare The big squeeze Assessing the changes to family incomes over the next six months 26 September 2021 by Karl Handscomb This winter will see a major income squeeze – and it will be focused on low-to-middle income households. High inflation, especially higher energy bills, will strain many families’ finances. But these pressures will be compounded for over 4 million families when £20 a week is cut from Universal Credit in October 2021. Looking forward, April … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Living standards· Prices & consumption· Inequality & poverty· Welfare The benefit freeze has ended, but erosion of the social security safety net continues Expected benefit uprating in April 2020 16 October 2019 by Adam Corlett Major working-age benefits will rise in cash terms in April 2020, for the first time in five years. But while the benefit freeze has now ended, its effect of significantly weakening the social security safety net has not. READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption· Intergenerational Centre Consuming forces: generational living standards measured through household consumption 30 September 2017 by Laura Gardiner and Donald Hirsch and Laura Valadez-Martinez This report sheds further light on living standards across generations by considering levels and patterns of expenditure for working-age households in detail. It explores changes over time for different age and income groups. READ MORE
Prices & consumption· Economy and public finances The going rate: moving from CPI to CPIH and the inflation experiences of UK households 20 March 2017 by Stephen Clarke The period of ultra-low inflation is over. CPI inflation is expected to rise above 2 per cent in the near future, eating into earnings and making benefits less generous. This coincides with a change in the way we measure those price rises, with a new main measure of inflation. On 21 March, CPIH will replace … Continued READ MORE
