Longstanding economic fractures have been widened by the pandemic. In response, a range of policy actions are needed across the income distribution and at all stages of the economic process. Economic and social inequalities take many forms: many have been widened by Covid-19. Across the income distribution, consumption, savings, job losses and the opportunities for […]
Category: Inequality & poverty
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Do we need the term BAME?
The acronym BAME lumps together black, Asian and minority ethnic groups as disadvantaged. Yet not all these groups and certainly not all individuals within them can be characterised as disadvantaged. There are better methods for identifying disadvantaged communities and designing appropriate policy. One of the recommendations in the recent report of the Commission of Race […]
Children who grow up in low-income households or whose parents have low levels of education lag behind their peers in progress on maths and reading at school. They also typically have worse behavioural skills. Will the lockdown and the recession make things even worse for them? These gaps in test results and behavioural skills increase […]
Following a campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford, the government’s COVID Summer Food Fund will provide food vouchers for children from low-income families who are eligible for free school meals. What are the likely results? Thanks at least in part to a campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford, children in England whose families claim means-tested benefits will […]
The UK government’s strategy for supporting incomes in the crisis rests on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and the social security system, mainly Universal Credit. What do we know about their effectiveness in protecting the vulnerable? The UK government’s response to the need to support family incomes directly during the […]
The finances of poorer and younger UK households are being hit harder by the Covid-19 recession. The policy response to provide immediate support for fragile household finances has been radical, but there are big questions about longer-term outcomes. The Covid-19 crisis is causing a deep recession in the UK, and it is generating a sudden […]