Tom Waters

The Chancellor has introduced workable and generous income protection schemes for most employees and self-employed people that lose work as a result of coronavirus. But there are some groups who have seen no increase in protection.

The self-employed are more exposed to the large falls in demand resulting from social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic and more likely to be living in poverty than employees.

Over the past decade employment has grown very strongly, from 29 million to 33 million in work (70% and 76% of the working age population). At the same time wages have grown at historically slow rates.

These presentations were given as part of a day of lectures on Public Economics to students, held at the IFS.

Below we outline an initial response from IFS researchers on the Labour manifesto. We take policy areas by turn but this is not a full assessment.

Below we outline an initial response from IFS researchers on the Liberal Democrat manifesto. We take a number of policy areas by turn but this is not a full assessment.

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have clashed in an ITV debate during which both candidates made several claims on Brexit, a no-deal and future tax policy. The independent fact-checking charity Full Fact, the Institute for Government and the Institute for Fiscal Studies have examined the answers provided by the two men hoping to become the next prime minister.

This weekend, on Saturday 6th July, the state pension age rises again, to 65 and 5 months. Naturally, this means that some will have to wait longer to receive their state pension. But it also means that some with low incomes must wait longer to receive ‘Pension Credit’ – a means-tested benefit that aims to provide pensioners with a ‘minimum income’.

IFS researchers presented the key findings from the latest in the series of flagship IFS annual reports on living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK. Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the report analysed the latest data on living standards, while setting this in the context of developments in pay, employment and inflation.