Under New Management: options for supporting ‘just managing’ families at the Autumn Statement

The new Prime Minister has been very clear in her determination to put the interests of ‘just managing’ families at the heart of her government, but she has inherited tax and benefit plans which are set to lower incomes for many in the group over the remainder of the parliament. With post-EU referendum revisions to projections for jobs, earnings and inflation pointing to slower levels of income growth in the coming years, the outlook for those who are just about managing looks even tougher than we forecast at the time of the March Budget.

In this note, the third and final paper in our pre-Autumn Statement series, we set out both the scale of the challenge facing the Chancellor and some specific options for providing targeted support.