A report said that minority-ethnic women experienced excess poverty. Women of all ethnic groups had lower individual incomes than men in the same ethnic groups, with Pakistani and Bangladeshi women having the largest gap and Chinese and black Caribbean women the lowest.
Source: Alita Nandi and Lucinda Platt, Ethnic Minority Women's Poverty and Economic Well Being, Government Equalities Office
Date: 2010-Dec
A bulletin summarized statistics on low pay from the 2010 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). There were 271,000 jobs with pay less than the national minimum wage held by people aged 16 and over. This constituted 1.1 per cent of all jobs, compared with 0.9 per cent a year earlier.
Source: Low Pay Estimates: April 2010, Office for National Statistics
Links: Bulletin
Date: 2010-Dec
An article (in the 27th British Social Attitudes report) examined public attitudes towards income inequality and redistributive policies. There was high – and growing – concern about income inequality, and a belief that the government should act to reduce it. But only 27 per cent of people agreed that the government should spend more on welfare benefits – compared with well over one-half (58 per cent) in 1991.
Source: Karen Rowlingson, Michael Orton and Eleanor Taylor, 'Do we still care about inequality?', in Alison Park and Elizabeth Clery (eds.), British Social Attitudes: The 27th Report, SAGE Publications
Links: Summary | NatCen press release | Telegraph report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Dec
A briefing paper examined the concept of 'middle incomes'. It considered the relative merits and drawbacks of different approaches, and set out how a wide range of possible middles could be derived. Legitimate definitions of average or 'middle' income ranged widely, from £7,000 per annum (median net earnings among all adults) to £43,000 (mean gross income among working-age households). Nonetheless the concept remained a useful measure for researchers and others wishing to understand the experiences of the 'not-rich, not-poor'.
Source: Matthew Whittaker, Locating the Middle, Resolution Foundation
Links: Briefing
Date: 2010-Dec
An article (in the 27th British Social Attitudes report) examined trends in people's perceptions of social mobility, factors that were important for 'getting ahead', and actual/ideal pay levels. Generally people believed that wages across the scale were unfair. Those at the bottom of the pay scale were seen to earn less than they should, while those at the top were seen to earn too much. People thought that a chairman of a large company should earn only 6 times more than an unskilled factory worker – compared with the multiple of 15 in reality.
Source: Anthony Heath, Nan Dirk de Graaf and Yaojun Li, 'How fair is the route to the top? Perceptions of social mobility', in Alison Park and Elizabeth Clery (eds.), British Social Attitudes: The 27th Report, SAGE Publications
Links: Summary | NatCen press release
Date: 2010-Dec
A paper examined how the tax and benefit system had redistributed income, and affected incentives to work, in 2009-10; and the effect of tax and benefit reforms between 1978-79 and 2009-10 on the level of inequality and work incentives.
Source: Stuart Adam and James Browne, Redistribution, Work Incentives and Thirty Years of UK Tax and Benefit Reform, Working Paper 10/24, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Dec
The interim report was published of a government-commissioned review of 'fair pay' in the public sector. It set out the case for a maximum pay multiple that would keep the pay of top executives in the public sector bounded by what their staff earned.
Source: Hutton Review of Fair Pay in the Public Sector: Interim Report, HM Treasury
Links: Report | Review press release | Labour Party press release | ATL press release | Hay Group press release | NASUWT press release | TUC press release | Unite press release | Guardian report | BBC report | People Management report | Morning Star report | Personnel Today report | Public Finance report
Date: 2010-Dec
A report examined the financial position in 2008-09 of working households with low-to-middle incomes – a group that was too rich to rely heavily on all the support mechanisms of the welfare state, but often too poor to flourish in the market economy.
Source: Squeezed Britain: The 2010 audit of low-to-middle earners, Resolution Foundation
Links: Report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2)
Date: 2010-Nov
An article used newly released experimental estimates of the proportion of households in poverty to explore spatial patterns of the proportion of households in poverty. It focused on how poverty was distributed within regions and local authorities. There were wide variations in the patterns of the proportions of households in poverty in each region. The north east had the highest proportion of households in poverty, while London had the largest spread – that is, it had both areas with very low and high proportions of households in poverty.
Source: Robert Fry, <:'Understanding household income poverty at small area level', Regional Trends 43, Office for National Statistics
Links: Article
Date: 2010-Nov
A paper (published in two parts) examined housing wealth inequality. The first part set out the results of a government seminar (held in 2007) that considered housing wealth inequality and its possible implications for housing policy. The second part examined changes to housing wealth inequality.
Source: Housing Wealth Inequality: Economics paper 6 – Volume 1, Department for Communities and Local Government | Eric Levin and Gwilym Price, Measuring Changes in Housing Wealth Inequality: Economics paper 6 – Volume 2, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Paper (Part 1) | Paper (Part 2)
Date: 2010-Nov
The income and wealth chapter of Social Trends was published. Between 1998-99 and 2008-09 the percentage of individuals living in households with low income remained constant, at about 18 per cent. But the percentage of children and pensioners living in low-income households decreased from 26 per cent of children to 22 per cent, and from 27 per cent of pensioners to 20 per cent.
Source: Sonia Carrera and Jen Beaumont, 'Income and wealth', Social Trends 41, Office for National Statistics
Links: Chapter | ONS press release
Date: 2010-Nov
A trade union analysis found that the poorest 10 per cent of households would be hit 15 times harder than the richest 10 per cent as a result of cuts in public services announced by the government in the 2010 Spending Review.
Source: Press release 22 October 2010, Trades Union Congress
Links: Analysis | TUC press release | Unison press release
Date: 2010-Oct
A paper examined the impact of the national minimum wage (NMW) on employment and inequality over the decade since its introduction in 1999. An increased 'bite' of the NMW was associated with falls in lower-tail wage inequality. Moreover, although the average employment effect of the NMW over the entire period was broadly neutral, there were small but significant positive employment estimates from 2003 onward, when the average bite of the NMW had been at its highest.
Source: Peter Dolton, Chiara Rosazza-Bondibene and Jonathan Wadsworth, Employment, Inequality and the UK National Minimum Wage over the Medium-Term, DP1007, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Oct
A report said that the Communities First regeneration programme had to work better with other regeneration initiatives in order to meet the wider outcomes needed to improve the conditions of people living in the most deprived neighbourhoods in Wales.
Source: Stephen Hincks and Brian Robson, Regenerating Communities First Neighbourhoods in Wales, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | JRF press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Oct
A survey found that the directors of the largest ('FTSE 100') quoted companies received an average earnings increase of 55 per cent in the year to June 2010.
Source: Directors' Pay Report 2010/11, Incomes Data Services
Links: Summary | IDS press release | Morning Star report
Date: 2010-Oct
A report examined the role that housing wealth played in the overall distribution of wealth. It considered the potential role that housing wealth might play in improving the welfare of retired households, and the effect of inheritance and lifetime gifts on the inter-generational distribution of wealth.
Source: Lindsey Appleyard and Karen Rowlingson, Home-Ownership and the Distribution of Personal Wealth: A review of the evidence, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2010-Sep
A think-tank briefing paper modelled the impact of tax and benefit changes in the 2010 'emergency' Budget on different income and expenditure groups. It said that many of the progressive tax rises that would be introduced over the years 2010-2012 had been announced by the previous government, and that the Budget measures scheduled to come in between 2012 and 2014 were generally regressive. Moreover, the distributional analysis in the Budget documentation did not include the effects of some cuts to housing benefit, disability living allowance, and tax credits that were likely to affect the poorer half of the income distribution more than the richer half.
Source: James Browne and Peter Levell, The Distributional Effect of Tax and Benefit Reforms to be Introduced Between June 2010 and April 2014: A Revised Assessment, Briefing Note 108, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note | IFS press release | ECP press release | Children & Young People Now report | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Aug
A paper examined the impact that raising the minimum level of public sector pay in Scotland would have on the share of national income received by those on the lowest incomes. It then examined the effects that raising the wages of low-paid groups would have on disposable household incomes, by looking at the interaction between wages and the tax and benefits systems.
Source: Low Pay and Income Inequality in Scotland, Scottish Government
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Jul
Researchers estimated two measures of wealth – liquid financial wealth (which excluded pension and housing wealth) and housing wealth – in both 2000 and 2005. Most families accumulated very little liquid wealth between 2000 and 2005. Younger families and those on the lowest incomes had particularly low median rates of saving over this period.
Source: Thomas Crossley and Cormac O Dea, The Wealth and Saving of UK Families on the Eve of the Crisis, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Report | IFS press release
Date: 2010-Jul
Researchers examined the cross-sectional distribution of household wealth holdings, using the Wealth and Assets Survey, from the perspective of a 'life cycle' model of saving behaviour. It considered what the distribution of pension wealth and other forms of wealth suggested about the level of, and uncertainty about, future retirement resources.
Source: James Banks, Rowena Crawford and Gemma Tetlow, What Does the Distribution of Wealth Tell Us About Future Retirement Resources?, Research Report 665, Department for Work and Pensions Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release | IFS press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Jul
An article examined spatial disparities in average income, in particular how it was distributed within regions and local authorities. There was a wide variation in patterns of average household income: London had the widest spread, and Wales the narrowest, based on net income before housing costs in 2007-08.
Source: Stephen Bond and Cecilia Campos, 'Understanding income at small area level', Regional Trends 42: 2010 edition, Office for National Statistics
Links: Article | ONS press release
Date: 2010-Jun
A report examined how taxes and benefits affected the income of households. Disposable income inequality in 2008-09 was at almost the same level as in 2007-08. In 2008-09, income before taxes and benefits of the top one-fifth of households was £73,800 per year on average compared with £5,000 for the bottom one-fifth – a ratio of 15 to 1. After taking account of taxes and benefits, the gap between the top and the bottom quintiles was reduced to a ratio of 4 to 1.
Source: Andrew Barnard, The Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income, 2008/09, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | Data | Statistical press release | ONS press release
Date: 2010-Jun
In 2008-09, 5.8 million working-age adults were living in relative poverty before housing costs (BHC) and 7.8 million after housing costs (AHC): compared with 2007-08, this represented a rise of 0.2 million (BHC) and 0.3 million (AHC). In 2008-09, 2.8 million children were living in relative poverty BHC and 3.9 million AHC: compared with 2007-08, this represented a fall of 0.1 million BHC and 0.1 million AHC.
Source: Households Below Average Income: An analysis of the income distribution 1994/95-2008/09, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | DWP press release | IFS press release | TUC press release | Barnardos press release | Children & Young People Now report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-May
An article examined the dispersion in gross disposable household income per head between United Kingdom regions and sub-regions between 1995 and 2008.
Source: Sebnem Oguz and Jonathan Knight, 'Regional economic indicators with a focus on gross disposable household income', Economic & Labour Market Review, May 2010, Office for National Statistics
Links: Article
Date: 2010-May
A government report set out a comprehensive assessment of poverty in the United Kingdom in 2010. It examined progress against a broad range of poverty and deprivation indicators – including income poverty, income inequality, indebtedness, unemployment and inactivity, educational and health inequalities, family structure, and community breakdown.
Source: State of the Nation Report: Poverty, Worklessness and Welfare Dependency in the UK, Cabinet Office
Links: Report
Notes: Original links removed by Cabinet Office
Date: 2010-May
A think-tank report examined changes to average incomes, inequality, and poverty that had occurred since 1979, with a particular focus on changes in the latest year of data (2008-09) and since 1996-97. Changes in poverty under the previous Labour government had been 'uneven', with relative poverty falling most in the north east and Scotland but rising in the east and west midlands.
Source: Robert Joyce, Alastair Muriel, David Phillips and Luke Sibieta, Poverty and Inequality in the UK 2010, Commentary 116, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Commentary | IFS press release | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-May
An article said that changes in women's education and their behavioural consequences had accounted for little if any of the growth in earnings inequality between households.
Source: Richard Breen and Leire Salazar, 'Has increased women's educational attainment led to greater earnings inequality in the United Kingdom? A multivariate decomposition analysis', European Sociological Review, Volume 26 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper examined the record of the Labour government on inequality. Although the fastest increase in inequality in the previous 30 years had been during the 1980s, there had still been some (small) increase after 1997.
Source: Stephen Machin, Inequality: Still Higher, But Labour's Policies Kept It Down, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that over the decade from 1998, the highest-paid 10 per cent of workers saw their share of total annual wages rise from 27 per cent to 30 per cent. The majority of this went to the top 1 per cent and could be mainly accounted for by bonuses to financial sector workers. By 2008, the increased share that bankers were taking amounted to an extra £12 billion per year in wages alone.
Source: Brian Bell and John Van Reenen, Bankers' Pay and Extreme Wage Inequality in the UK, Special Paper 21, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Date: 2010-Apr
A think-tank briefing said that the tax and benefit measures implemented by the Labour government since 1997 had increased the incomes of poorer households and reduced those of richer ones, largely halting the rapid rise in income inequality seen under the previous Conservative government.
Source: James Browne and David Phillips, Tax and Benefit Reforms Under Labour, Briefing Note 88, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note | IFS press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Apr
A report examined trends in income and wealth, based on the latest official statistics (for 2008 and 2009). In 2007-08 people living in workless households were concentrated in the bottom one-fifth of the income distribution: 70 per cent were in the bottom group, and only 2 per cent in the top one-fifth.
Source: Matthew Hughes (ed.), Social Trends 40: Chapter 5 – Income & Wealth, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Apr
A briefing paper said that there was strong evidence of an increase in the rate of severe poverty since 2004-05, mirroring a rise in the official poverty rate – although the rate of persistent poverty (where people remained poor for a number of years) seemed to have fallen under Labour, at least until 2007. But the evidence was less conclusive as to whether severe poverty was higher than when Labour had come to power in 1997.
Source: Mike Brewer, David Phillips and Luke Sibieta, What Has Happened to 'Severe Poverty' Under Labour?, Briefing Note 90, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note | IFS press release
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that the majority of the increase in incomes for the top decile since 1998 had gone to the top 1 per cent, and could be mainly accounted for by bonuses to financial sector workers. There was very little evidence whether tax rises for this group would cause a significant number of firms and workers to leave Britain.
Source: Brian Bell, Bankers' Bonuses, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Apr
A briefing paper said that living standards had grown during the Labour government's period in office. Between 1996-97 and 2008-09, real household disposable incomes grew by 2.0 per cent per year on average. In 2007-08 income inequality was slightly higher than when Labour came to power and higher than in any year since at least the 1950s: but the rise in income inequality under Labour was far smaller than the rise observed under the Conservatives during the 1980s.
Source: Alastair Muriel, David Phillips and Luke Sibieta, Living Standards, Inequality and Poverty: Labour's Record, Briefing Note 89, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note | IFS press release
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that family income was more closely related to sons' earnings for those born in 1970 than for those born in 1958. This was in stark contrast to the finding on the basis of social class: intergenerational mobility for this outcome was found to be unchanged. The paper rejected the view that the divergent results were driven by the poorer measure of permanent family income in the 1958.
Source: Jo Blanden, Paul Gregg and Lindsey Macmillan, Intergenerational Persistence in Income and Social Class: The impact of within-group inequality, Working Paper 10/230, Centre for Market and Public Organisation/University of Bristol
Links: Working paper
Notes: The paper was an updated version of one published in 2008.
Date: 2010-Mar
An article examined the distribution of household expenditure, in particular the effects of taxes. A number of differences were found between analyses of household disposable income and expenditure. Indirect taxes were progressive in expenditure distribution, but regressive in income distribution. Inequality in expenditure distribution was lower than in the income distribution. Households composed of lone parents, couples with children, and people in full-time education were more equally spread within the expenditure distribution than the income distribution, where they tended to be more concentrated in the bottom quintile groups.
Source: Sonia Carrera, 'An expenditure based analysis of the redistribution of household income', Economic & Labour Market Review, March 2010, Office for National Statistics
Links: Article | ONS press release
Date: 2010-Mar
An article presented summary analyses (overall medians, and the make-up and distribution of earnings) from the results of the 2009 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, comparing them with the 2008 results (and where relevant the 1997-2008 back series).
Source: Ceri Holdsworth, 'Patterns of pay: results of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 1997 to 2009', Economic & Labour Market Review, March 2010, Office for National Statistics
Links: Article
Date: 2010-Mar
An article reviewed and extended research on levels of income inequality and intergenerational social mobility. Although there continued to be widespread concern about inequality of incomes, this was declining and focused mostly on higher earners. Recent research on social mobility had been influential and might be one means of focusing attention on the effects of a widening income distribution: nonetheless an egalitarian agenda faced 'considerable challenges'.
Source: Stephen McKay, 'Where do we stand on inequality? Reflections on recent research and its implications', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, Volume 18 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Mar
The government began consultation on proposals for the English indices of deprivation. Responses to this consultation would inform the decision as to whether the next update of the indices was based on the indicators and methodology used for the 2007 update or if a more detailed review was required.
Source: English Indices of Deprivation: Consultation, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Consultation document
Date: 2010-Mar
The report of an independent panel examined the relationship between the distributions of various kinds of economic outcome, on the one hand, and people's characteristics and circumstances, on the other. 'Deep-seated and systematic differences' remained between social groups across all the dimensions examined, although some of the widest gaps had narrowed in the previous decade – such as between the earnings of women and men, or in the educational qualifications of different ethnic groups. People's origins shaped their life-chances from cradle to grave: differences in wealth were associated, for example, with opportunities such as the ability to buy houses in the catchment areas of the best schools, to afford private education, or to help children on to the housing ladder. At the other end of life, wealth levels were associated with stark differences in life expectancy after 50. Inequality in earnings and in income was high in the United Kingdom, compared with both other industrialized countries and 30 years previously. Over the most recent decade, earnings inequality had narrowed a little and income inequality had stabilized on some measures: but it had increased on measures affected by the share going to the very top. The large growth in inequality of the 1980s had not been reversed. The panel identified sixteen areas – from early years to pensions – where policy interventions were needed to tackle inequalities.
Source: National Equality Panel, An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK, Government Equalities Office
Links: Report | Summary | NEP research reports | Hansard | Government response | GEO press release | Gordon Brown article | EHRC press release | CPAG press release | CAP press release | TUC press release | Compass press release | Fawcett Society press release | ISER press release | Bristol University press release | ILC press release | Centre for Cities press release | ResPublica press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | BBC report | Personnel Today report | Ekklesia report | People Management report | Children & Young People Now report | Inside Housing report | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2010-Jan
A study identified the key factors that had undermined the ability of deprived neighbourhoods in a midlands city (Birmingham) to prosper – such as the role of economic restructuring, housing policy, international migration, and internal mobility. Predominantly white council wards lacked community structures such as churches, mosques, and youth groups that had helped ease the impact of economic decline in wards with high minority-ethnic populations.
Source: Alex Fenton, Peter Tyler, Sanna Markkanen, Anna Clarke and Christine Whitehead, Why Do Neighbourhoods Stay Poor? Deprivation, place and people in Birmingham, Barrow Cadbury Trust
Links: Report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report examined wealth holdings for different ethnic groups. Up to 60 per cent of black and Asian people had no savings at all. Tough policy decisions would have to be made to ensure that all people, regardless of ethnicity, had the assets to fulfil their potential.
Source: Omar Khan, Why Do Assets Matter? Assets, equality and ethnicity – Building towards financial inclusion, Runnymede Trust
Links: Report | Runnymede Trust press release
Date: 2010-Jan
A report examined economic deprivation in the 39 New Deal for Communities areas. It considered how NDC areas were performing compared with other deprived neighbourhoods, and whether they were narrowing the gap with more affluent neighbourhoods.
Source: Kate Wilkinson and Michael Noble, Tracking Economic Deprivation in New Deal for Communities Areas, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Jan