The Government's latest figures on the distribution of income and the extent of relative poverty in the UK will be released by the Department for Work and Pensions on Thursday 7 May. The IFS will issue a press release commenting on these figures shortly after their release on 7 May. The IFS will then be releasing a fuller report on the latest figures and recent trends on Friday 8 May. This will be accompanied by a briefing note analysing what happened to living standards, and measures of poverty and inequality, during past UK recessions.

This briefing will assess:

• How average incomes and the gap between rich and poor in Britain continued to change just before the start of the recession;
• Whether rises in child poverty between 2004-05 and 2006-07 continued for a third year into 2007-08;
• Whether pensioner poverty has continued to rise after a surprise increase last year, and what has happened to poverty amongst groups less favoured by Government tax and benefit policies.
• How living standards evolved during past UK recessions - both on average and by particular sub-groups such as age, level of schooling and family type - as well as what happened to measures of poverty and inequality during past recessions.

This report and briefing note was launched on Friday 8 May at the IFS offices in Ridgmount Street, London.