Briefing

The Chancellor delivered his Pre-Budget Report at 12.30pm on Wednesday 9th December.

A press release shows our initial reactions to the Pre-Budget report.

IFS held a briefing on Thursday 10th December. These are the presentations from the briefing:

• Introduction, Robert Chote
• Public finances: less to repair, and less done?, Carl Emmerson
• Public spending, Gemma Tetlow
• Tax cuts for business, tax rises for the rich, Stuart Adam
• Personal tax and benefit changes, David Phillips

Useful publications

Public finances

• PBR 2009: filling in some details
  This presentation, delivered by Robert Chote, outlines what we might expect to hear in the Chancellor's PBR 2009 statement.
• Britain's fiscal squeeze: the choices ahead
  With the next general election less than a year away, this note discusses some of the key public finance questions all the parties will have to grapple with.
• Keeping official fiscal forecasts honest
  The Conservatives have said they would create a new independent body to forecast the public finances. Robert Chote examines the challenges such a body might face.
• Recent comment and analysis
  IFS staff outline current concerns in recent newspaper articles, including in the Times and Public Finance magazine.
• Monthly bulletins
  IFS bulletins examining the latest figures for how monthly tax revenues and government spending have evolved during 2009-10. These are updated on a monthly basis; the latest figures were released on 19th November 2009.

Public spending

• A survey of public spending in the UK
  This Briefing Note provides an overview of public spending in the UK. It describes the components of public spending and examines trends in expenditure in each of six main areas.
• How cold will it be? Prospects for NHS funding: 2011- 2017
  Although there is consensus that the NHS faces a tough financial future, there is no agreement about just how cold the financial climate will be. The King's Fund and the Institute for Fiscal Studies set out three plausible future funding scenarios and their consequences.

Personal taxes and living standards

• Have the poor got poorer under Labour?
  This IFS 'Observation' examines David Cameron's assertions that Labour has "made the poorest poorer", "left youth unemployment higher" and "made inequality greater".
• Income tax and National Insurance
  This chapter appeared in the Green Budget 2009 .
• The living standards of families with children reporting low incomes
  Previous analysis suggests that some children in households with low income do not have commensurately low living standards. This report aims to document the extent to which this is true.
• Can more revenue be raised by increasing income tax rates for the very rich?
  This Briefing Note discusses how much scope there is to raise revenue from the very rich by increasing income tax rates and assesses in detail the amount of revenue that is likely to be raised by the government's proposed reforms.
• Micro-simulating child poverty in 2010 and 2020
  The 2008 Pre-Budget Report (PBR) said that 'the Government will take stock of progress towards its 2010 and 2020 child poverty target in the [2009] Budget'. This paper updates our previous analysis of the prospects for child poverty in the UK.
• Poverty and inequality in the UK: 2009
  An update on trends in living standards, income inequality and poverty.
• What can we learn from Labour's shift in childcare policy?
  This IFS 'Observation' examines who will win and lose from these changes, and what they tell us about the Government's priorities.
• The expenditure experience of older households
  This Commentary examines detailed trends in expenditure patterns between 1995 and 2007, with a particular focus on the pensioner population.

Budget 2009 analysis

Researchers at IFS carry out ongoing analysis of the government's fiscal position. After each Pre-Budget Report, Budget and Spending Review, we publish analysis of the Chancellor's proposals and reforms as well as of the public finances.

• Budget 2009
  Here you will find our analysis of the 2009 Budget and presentations from our briefing.
• Green Budget 2009
  Three chapters from the January 2009 Green Budget discuss the evolution of the public finances under Labour, the fiscal impact of the credit crunch and the current fiscal framework.

Fiscal Facts

Fiscal Facts contains facts and figures about UK taxes, benefits and public spending. The tables give current and historical rates and thresholds for the main direct and indirect taxes, as well as benefit rates, numbers of claimants and expenditure levels.

There are also three regularly updated briefing notes:

• A survey of public spending in the UK (updated September 2009)
• A survey of the UK tax system (updated April 2009)
• A survey of UK local government finance (July 2007)
• A survey of the UK benefit system (updated December 2009)

• Measuring UK fiscal stance since the Second World War
• Long-term trends in British taxation and spending