Living standards

In this event, IFS researchers shared the findings from a new report, funded by the Nuffield foundation, that makes projections of the inheritances to be received by those born in the 1960, 1970s and 1980s in the UK, and examines the implications for living standards and economic inequalities both now and in future.

It is bad enough that parental background is such a strong determinant of educational and labour market success. But at least we all have some individual responsibility for how well we progress, even if some have much better chances than others. Our inheritances we cannot control. And as a new report published today by my colleagues at the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows, these inheritances are likely to play an increasingly important role in constraining social mobility.

Today, the Department for Work and Pensions released the latest official statistics on household incomes, poverty, and income inequality. This observation looks at the key findings from those statistics.

Rishi Sunak will have a host of tough choices and trade-offs to make as he steers the economy and the public finances into calmer waters. At the very least, the chancellor needs to avoid exacerbating these inequities further, as his predecessors often did. That means looking at tax and spending decisions according to how they affect those with wealth, and those without.

A socially mobile country provides equal opportunities for everyone, across big cities and small towns, and regardless of whether your parents are rich or poor. This event looked at the state of mobility across England and explored policy options for any government committed to a levelling up agenda.

At this event, IFS researchers present the key findings from their latest flagship annual report on living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

This report examines how living standards – most commonly measured by households’ incomes – were changing in the UK up to approximately the eve of the current COVID-19 crisis, using the latest official household income data covering years up to 2018–19.

At this event, IFS researchers discussed how Covid-19 has interacted with existing inequalities and consider the potential long-term legacy of the pandemic on inequality.

UK households hold around £230bn of unsecured or consumer debt – including loans, credit card debt, hire purchase agreements and overdrafts. This equates to an average £8,000 per household. The bulk of that debt is held by those on relatively high incomes and in normal times its repayment tends not to cause financial difficulties. But in a minority of cases, debts can put stress on households’ budgets with consequences for living standards and mental health.