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...

The parts of the UK tax system that dictate how different forms of income are taxed are of central importance and are not fit for purpose. There is a large, unjustified and problematic bias against employment and labour incomes and in favour of business ownership and capital incomes. The tax...

The Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) is a charity that aims to make a practical improvement to social mobility in the UK by encouraging and supporting access to 'high-status' universities and professional occupations for high-attaining pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. This evaluation...

While there is broad agreement in the UK on the importance of social mobility, current evidence suggests that social background is more strongly related to outcomes in the UK than in many other developed countries. Educational attainment, university choices, occupation and earnings are all...

Retention of nursing staff within the NHS is a key policy issue. Pay policy - and the ability that trusts and nurses have to react to local working conditions and the cost of living - is likely to be a key lever in reducing attrition among current staff. Understanding the restrictions that the...

This report examines changes in the distribution of household incomes in the UK, and the determinants and consequences of recent trends. This includes analysing changes not only in average living standards but also in household income inequality and measures of income poverty and deprivation [...]

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. We particularly focus on how this differed...

Health spending, and the performance of the NHS, will feature prominently in the upcoming general election campaign. Many different factors matter for NHS performance and for the wider health of the population, but one important factor is the level of spending on health services. In this IFS...

The introduction of universal credit (UC) has been the most significant reform to the workingage benefits system since the reforms following the post-war Beveridge Report. When fully rolled out, around 8 million families - 29% of all working-age families - will be entitled to the benefit. UC is...