Poverty

"When economic inequalities start to undermine our sense of equal citizenship, as they seem to have done in the UK, then the need for action becomes urgent."

At this event, our speakers presented new work undertaken for the ground-breaking IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, examining people’s attitudes towards inequalities and how these fit with different traditions of philosophical thought on the topic.

This is the third in a series of online events looking in detail at the three major economic challenges identified by the Tirole-Blanchard Commission, featuring presentations by Axel Börsch-Supan, Claudia Diehl, and Carol Propper.

At this event, IFS researchers presented the key findings from their latest report on "Why do wealthy parents have wealthy children?", funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

At this IFS event, Olivier Blanchard, Professor Emeritus at MIT and former Chief Economist at the IMF, and Jean Tirole, Nobel Prize-winner and Honorary President of the Toulouse School of Economics, presented their report on the major future economic challenges.

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

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.

The temporary £20 per week increase in Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit enacted at the start of the pandemic is due to expire at the end of March. Some campaigners have called for it to be extended for another year or made permanent, while the government are said to be considering instead a £500 one off bonus to benefit recipients.

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.

The last few days have seen free school meals in England rocket to the front of the papers, as many MPs, campaign groups and businesses have lined up behind Marcus Rashford’s proposals to extend free school meal vouchers through the school holidays until Easter next year. While the motion was defeated last week, the Labour party has promised to bring the motion again – and several Conservative MPs have already indicated that it may receive a more sympathetic hearing the second time around.