A think-tank study provided an overview of where the most acute psychological and material needs were in Britain, and which needs might became more pressing in the future. There was a severe lack of social support amid soaring levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and obesity. The study looked at why some people could cope with shocks and setbacks and others could not; and at the implications for policy, philanthropy, and public action.
Source: Sinking and Swimming: Understanding Britain's unmet needs, Young Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | Young Foundation press release | Guardian report | New Start report
Date: 2009-Dec
A report examined the relative importance of the different factors that had contributed to increases in inequality since 1968. Changing earnings inequality between different occupations had played a 'significant' role in overall changes in income inequality.
Source: Mike Brewer, Alastair Muriel and Liam Wren-Lewis, Accounting for Changes in Inequality Since 1968: Decomposition analyses for Great Britain, Government Equalities Office
Date: 2009-Dec
An article examined research into the role of family life in the reproduction of class-related educational inequalities.
Source: Sarah Irwin, 'Locating where the action is: quantitative and qualitative lenses on families, schooling and structures of social inequality', Sociology, Volume 43 Issue 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Dec
An annual report was published on the state of poverty and social exclusion, covering issues including: low income, worklessness and debt, ill-health, poor education, and problems in communities. Although the economic recession had certainly had an impact, several key indicators – particularly regarding low income, unemployment, and debt – had already been getting worse before the recession began.
Source: Tom MacInnes, Peter Kenway and Anushree Parekh, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2009, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report | JRF press release | CPAG press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Dec
A report presented results from the new Wealth and Assets Survey. The least wealthy half of households accounted for only 9 per cent of wealth, while the wealthiest 20 per cent of households had 62 per cent of total wealth. The least wealthy 10 per cent of households had negative total net wealth.
Source: Chris Daffin (ed.), Wealth in Great Britain: Main results from the Wealth and Assets Survey 2006/08, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | ONS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Dec
A think-tank report set out a new method for calculating the social value of different jobs. Elite City bankers (earning £1 million-plus bonuses) destroyed £7 of value for every £1 they created: but hospital cleaners created over £10 in value for every £1 they received in pay.
Source: Eilis Lawlor, Helen Kersley and Susan Steed, A Bit Rich: Calculating the real value to society of different professions, New Economics Foundation
Links: Report | NEF press release | Voice press release | Guardian report | New Start report
Date: 2009-Dec
A report by a committee of MPs said that introducing an absolute cap on senior salaries in the public sector would be arbitrary and unlikely to deliver better value for money to the taxpayer: but there was much more that could be done to ensure 'appropriate rigour and coherence' in the processes for setting pay and the level of transparency and scrutiny that surrounded them. It recommended the establishment of a Top Pay Commission that would be able to 'name and shame' public sector organizations that were unable to justify their executive pay policies adequately.
Source: Top Pay in the Public Sector, Sixth Report (Session 2009-10), HC 172, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Guardian report | BBC report | Local Government Chronicle report | Inside Housing report | New Start report
Date: 2009-Dec
A report examined the degree to which government revenue and spending could be allocated across the population, and sought to identify the point where taxes paid and benefits received approximately balanced. Subject to a series of methodological limitations, it was found that the 'balance point' within the distribution was higher up the earnings distribution than might at first be expected – only the highest-earning 30-40 per cent paid more in taxes than they benefited from in public spending.
Source: Volterra Consulting, The Fiscal Landscape: Understanding contributions and benefits, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Nov
A trade union report said that a growing pay gap – particularly between those on middle incomes and the super-rich – was a crucial but overlooked ingredient in the financial crash. The share of national wealth going to wages had been in sharp decline, falling from 65 per cent in 1975 to 53 per cent on the latest figures, with a greater proportion going to the prosperous middle classes and super-rich. This had caused two serious imbalances in the economy: to maintain living standards, those falling behind on the wages front had borrowed more than they could afford, contributing to the credit crunch; and much of the rising profit share had been used for financial speculation rather than productive business investment, helping drive an over-reliance on finance and fuelling the unsustainable asset boom.
Source: Stewart Lansley, Unfair to Middling: How Middle Income Britain's shrinking wages fuelled the crash and threaten recovery, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Report | TUC press release
Date: 2009-Nov
The leader of the opposition Conservative Party said that the size, scope, and role of government in Britain had reached a point where it was inhibiting, not advancing, the progressive aims of reducing poverty, fighting inequality, and increasing general well-being.
Source: Speech by David Cameron MP (Conservative Party leader), 10 November 2009, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000)
Links: Speech | Conservative Party press release | Labour Party press release | CPAG press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3) | New Start report
Date: 2009-Nov
A think-tank report said that the British welfare state had evolved a 'poisonous blend of entitlement and apathy', in which people on middle and high incomes – who should be independent of public welfare – instead used their political weight to extract their 'fair share' from government, through universal benefits and near-free higher education. The cost of 'middle-class welfare' amounted to around £31 billion per year, in benefits such as child benefit, child and working tax credits, retirement pension and winter fuel allowance, and statutory maternity pay. Faced with the alternative of even more significant tax rises, these payments needed to be cut back to help restore the public finances and put welfare on a more sustainable footing.
Source: Thomas Cawston, Andrew Haldenby and Patrick Nolan, The End of Entitlement, Reform (020 7799 6699)
Links: Report | Reform press release | BBC report | FT report
Date: 2009-Oct
A study found that most people thought that 'deserved' inequalities were fair, and attitudes towards those on low incomes were often more negative than attitudes towards the rich. However, people also strongly supported a progressive tax and benefits system.
Source: Tom Hampson and Jemima Olchawski (eds.), Is Equality Fair? What the public really think about equality – and what we should do about it, Fabian Society (020 7227 4900)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Oct
An annual survey found that base salaries for directors in FTSE100 index companies (the largest publicly quoted companies) had increased by 10 per cent in 2008, even though the index itself had recorded a record fall as a result of the global economic crisis.
Source: The Guardian, 22 September 2009
Links: Guardian report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2009-Sep
A think-tank report called for a 'radical recasting' of state support for jobless and low-paid people, built around measures to 'make work pay' and increasing support for working couples. It said that the proposals would lift more than 200,000 children out of poverty, and boost the incomes of the lowest-paid people by nearly £5 billion.
Source: Dynamic Benefits: Towards welfare that works, Centre for Social Justice (020 7620 1120)
Links: Report (zip file) | Summary | CSJ press release | CPAG press release | CAP press release | Disability Alliance press release | Citizens Advice press release | Crisis press release | People Management report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Sep
A paper examined the importance of setting fiscal policy so as to maintain a fair balance of resources between generations. It said that a coherent fiscal policy should focus not on any particular number for government borrowing, but on ensuring that there was a fair balance between generations, after taking account of other influences such as property price movements. Broadly speaking, each generation should pay its own way. There might also be a case for the government actively promoting saving for old age, if people did not save adequately for retirement, to avoid the political pressure to fall back on pay-as-you-go benefits that burdened future generations.
Source: Ray Barrell and Martin Weale, Fiscal Policy, Fairness Between Generations and National Saving, Discussion Paper 338, National Institute for Economic and Social Research (020 7654 1901)
Links: Discussion paper | NIESR press release
Date: 2009-Sep
A paper examined attitudes to poverty, what influenced them, and ways to build public support for anti-poverty measures.
Source: Teresa Hanley, Engaging Public Support for Eradicating UK Poverty, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241)
Links: Paper
Date: 2009-Sep
A new book examined the historical development of social and fiscal policies from the late 1970s to the present day by asking what had changed, how these changes had affected people over the lifecourse, and what the potential lifetime implications of specific policy changes were.
Source: Martin Evans and Lewis Williams, A Generation of Change, A Lifetime of Difference? Social policy in Britain since 1979, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Date: 2009-Sep
A study examined how human rights had been used internationally to shape new conceptions of poverty and new approaches to combating it, and assessed the lessons for the United Kingdom. It looked at how human rights had been used to understand poverty; how communities experiencing poverty used human rights to act against injustice, build alliances between disparate groups, and articulate their conditions and claims; the tools that communities and their allies used to hold the state accountable for its human rights obligations; and how human rights had been implemented in practice in anti-poverty work by governments and other organizations.
Source: Alice Donald and Elizabeth Mottershaw, Poverty, Inequality and Human Rights: Do human rights make a difference?, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241)
Date: 2009-Sep
A report outlined the arguments for a High Pay Commission, designed to mitigate the damaging social and economic effects of excessive pay rates, and examined how such a Commission might work.
Source: Never Again! Why Britain needs a High Pay Commission, Compass (020 7463 0633)
Links: Report | PIRC press release
Date: 2009-Sep
A think-tank report said that whereas the goal of social mobility was based on self-interest, egalitarianism was based on social solidarity: they therefore led to 'starkly different' social outcomes. It set out 12 policy proposals for a fairer society, including: additional resourcing for Sure Start children's centres; increasing overall benefit levels for children of low-income families, in and out of work, faster than average earnings; ending charitable status for private schools; and abolishing university tuition fees.
Source: Rebecca Hickman, In Pursuit of Egalitarianism: And why social mobility cannot get us there, Compass (020 7463 0633)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Sep
A cabinet minister said that the number of people who adhered to a 'traditional egalitarian view of society' was too small a constituency for the Labour Party to construct a strong, viable, and inclusive electoral coalition on that basis.
Source: Speech by John Denham MP (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government), 1 July 2009
Links: Text of speech | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Jul
A new book examined the future of social democratic politics in Britain, in the wake of the global economic crisis and New Labour's decline.
Source: Patrick Diamond and Roger Liddle (eds.), Beyond New Labour: The future of social democracy in Britain, Politico's Publishing (0870 850 1110)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Jun
An article sought to define adequacy of income by considering the household income levels at which a specified, desirable, healthy standard of living was achieved, indicated by diet and nutrition.
Source: Christopher Deeming, 'Determining semi-normative poverty lines using social survey data', Social Policy and Administration, Volume 43 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Jun
A collection of essays examined what the Labour Party needed to do in order to revive its political fortunes. The essays proposed a wide range of policies and reforms – to tackle inequality, reform the constitution, and 'open up' both politics and the party itself.
Source: Peter Harrington and Beatrice Karol Burks (eds.), What Next for Labour? Ideas for the progressive Left, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jun
A study examined the underlying drivers of public attitudes towards economic inequality and welfare policy. Nearly all those surveyed placed themselves in the middle of the income spectrum, and interpreted the 'income gap' as the gap between the middle and the top. Most people believed that 'deserved' inequalities were fair: they were not opposed to high incomes that they perceived to be deserved through high-level ability, performance, or social contribution. Attitudes towards those on low incomes were often more negative than attitudes towards rich people. A linked report contained three policy responses to the research. A second linked report examined how politicians from the five major political parties thought and talked about economic inequality – both in private and in public.
Source: Louise Bamfield and Tim Horton, Understanding Attitudes to Tackling Economic Inequality, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241) | Brendan Barber, Eileen Devaney and Philippa Stroud, What Are the Implications of Attitudes to Economic Inequality?, Joseph Rowntree Foundation | Ruth Sheldon with Reg Platt and Naomi Jones, Political Debate About Economic Inequality: An information resource, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | Policy responses | Political debate report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jun
The government announced that it had accepted the recommendations from the independent Low Pay Commission, and that the national minimum wage rates would increase by around 1.2 per cent in October 2009. Workers aged 22 and over would receive an increase from £5.73 to £5.80 an hour; those aged 18-21 would receive an increase from £4.77 to £4.83; and those aged 16-17 would receive an increase from £3.53 to £3.57.
Source: National Minimum Wage: Low Pay Commission Report 2009, Cm 7611, Low Pay Commission, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | LPC press release | Hansard | DBERR press release | TUC press release | UNISON press release | CBI press release | CIPD press release | Oxfam press release | YWCA press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2009-May
The government published a Green Paper outlining proposals for a Bill of Rights. It said that there was a need for citizens' existing rights to be collected in one place, along with the social responsibilities expected of them in return. 'Key responsibilities' might include: not claiming benefits when able to work, obeying the law, reporting crimes, co-operating with the police, paying taxes, voting, and doing jury service. They could also include parents' duty to look after children, treating public sector workers with respect, and living within 'environmental limits'. The government said that a written statement of 'common values' would boost social cohesion.
Source: Rights and Responsibilities: Developing our constitutional framework, Cm 7577, Ministry of Justice, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Green Paper | Hansard | MOJ press release | JUSTICE press release | Liberal Democrats press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Mar
A report said that poor mental health experienced by individuals was a significant cause of wider social and health problems, including: low levels of educational achievement and work productivity; higher levels of physical disease and mortality; and violence, relationship breakdown, and poor community cohesion. There was overwhelming evidence that social inequality was a key cause of stress, and also exacerbated the stress of coping with material deprivation.
Source: Lynne Friedli, Mental Health, Resilience and Inequalities, World Health Organization (+45 39 17 17 17)
Links: Report | Summary | MHF press release | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Mar
A new book said that almost every modern social and environmental problem – ill-health, lack of community life, violence, drugs, obesity, mental illness, long working hours, big prison populations – was more likely to occur in societies where there was less equality. The most unequal societies were damaging for those who were better-off as well as for those who were poor.
Source: Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level: Why more equal societies almost always do better, Penguin Allen Lane (Fax: 0870 850 1115)
Links: Summary | York University press release | Nottingham University press release | Guardian report | Guardian review
Date: 2009-Mar
A new book examined whether society was more equal than it had been in 1997 when the Labour government came to power. There were sharp contrasts between different policy areas. There had been reductions in child and pensioner poverty, improved education outcomes for the poorest children and schools, and narrowing economic and other divides between deprived and other areas. But health inequalities had continued to widen, gaps in incomes between the very top and very bottom had grown, and poverty had increased for working-age people without children. In several policy areas there was a marked contrast between the first half of Labour's period in office and the second half, when progress had slowed or even stalled.
Source: John Hills, Tom Sefton and Kitty Stewart (eds.), Towards a More Equal Society? Poverty, inequality and policy since 1997, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary | JRF press release | CPAG press release | ECP press release | Community Care report | Guardian report | FT report | New Start report
Date: 2009-Feb
A think-tank report examined the connexions between society, the economy, and the environment, and drew out their implications for social policy. Policy and practice needed to aim for sustainable social justice. To achieve this, the welfare system needed to be transformed. The role of government would remain central, but a new social settlement was needed that depended less on the market economy, and instead valued and nurtured two other economies – the resources of people and of the planet.
Source: Anna Coote and Jane Franklin, Green Well Fair: Three economies for social justice, New Economics Foundation (020 7820 6300)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Feb
The government published a White Paper on social mobility. The paper focused on key points in people's lives, including early years, education, and the transition into employment. The government would inject £57 million into free childcare places for children aged 2 from disadvantaged families, and all vulnerable pregnant mothers would have access to a family nurse throughout pregnancy and for the first two years. Other proposed measures included full-time volunteering programmes for unemployed people in 33 local authorities, and an employment support programme for young people leaving care. The government also planned extra support for parents and carers, offering them a £500 back-to-work training entitlement. A new Panel on Fair Access to Professions (chaired by Alan Milburn MP) was charged with making recommendations to ensure that everyone had a chance of getting into the main professions (including the law, civil service, military, arts, media, and finance) whatever their background.
Source: New Opportunities: Fair chances for the future, Cm 7533, Cabinet Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: White Paper | Cabinet Office press release (1) | Cabinet Office press release (2) | Downing Street press release | DCSF press release | DCLG press release | TUC press release | BITC press release | NUT press release | Action for Children press release | Daycare Trust press release | 4Children press release | Carers UK press release | PRTC press release | UUK press release | NUS press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3) | Inside Housing report | BBC report | Community Care report | FT report
Date: 2009-Jan
A report on social mobility (commissioned by the Liberal Democrat Party) said that a child's life-chances were 'dependent on the background and earnings of its parents', and that increased education funding had failed to reach those children most in need.
Source: Report from the Independent Commission on Social Mobility, Liberal Democrats (020 7222 7999)
Links: Report |Liberal Democrats> press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | Guardian report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2009-Jan