Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK ; 2017/2018 to 2021/2022

Debates over living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK are often hampered by the fact that official data on household incomes are available only with a significant lag. Currently, the latest statistics are for 2015-16. In this report, we attempt to fill this gap by estimating what has happened since 2015-16 to household incomes and poverty rates. We also look at how they might evolve up to 2021-22 if current tax and benefit policy plans are kept to and if the macroeconomic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - for things such as earnings and employment - were correct.