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New analysis from
Essex University and the LSE analyses the impact of benefit and direct tax
changes since the election in detail. This shows that the
poorest income groups lost the biggest
share of their incomes on
average, and those in the bottom half of incomes lost overall.
-
In contrast
those in the top half of incomes
gained from direct tax cuts, with the exception of most of the top 5 per
cent – although within this 5 percent group those at the very top gained,
because of the cut in the top rate of income tax.
-
In total, the changes have not
contributed to cutting the deficit.
Rather, the savings
from reducing benefits and tax credits have been spent on raising the
tax-free income tax allowance.
-
The
analysis challenges the idea that those with incomes in the top tenth have
lost as great a share of their incomes as those with the lowest incomes
The
full paper can
be downloaded here (pdf)
The
research,
by Paola De Agostini,
John Hills and
Holly Sutherland
suggests that who has gained or lost most as a result of the Coalition’s policy
changes depends critically on when reforms are measured from.
-
Treasury analysis, suggesting
that those at the top have lost proportionately most starts from January
2010 and therefore includes the effects of income tax changes at the top
announced by Labour in 2009 and taking effect in April 2010, before the
election.
-
But if the Coalition’s impacts
are measured comparing the system in 2014-15 with what would have happened
if the system inherited in May 2010, they have more clearly regressive
effect.
-
This resulted from the
combination of: changes to benefits and tax credits making them less
generous for the bottom and middle of the distribution; changes to Council
Tax and benefits from which those in the bottom half lost but the top half
gained; higher personal income tax allowances which meant the largest gains
for those in the middle, but with some income tax increases for the top 5
per cent; and the ‘triple lock’ on state pensions which were most valuable
as a proportion of their incomes for the bottom half.
-
Some
groups were clear losers on average – including lone parent families, large
families, children, and middle-aged people (at the age when many are
parents), while others were gainers, including two-earner couples, and those
in their 50s and early 60s.
Prof Sutherland,
Director of
EUROMOD
at the Institute for Social and
Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex commented: “It is striking
how seemingly technical issues or minor differences in assumptions like which
tax system is taken as the starting point for Coalition reforms, or whether to
assume 100% take-up of benefits have very big implications for what we conclude
about whether the rich or the poor were harder hit.”
Prof Hills, Director of the Centre for Analysis of
Social Exclusion at LSE, commented: “What is most remarkable about these results
is that the overall effect of direct tax and benefit changes under the Coalition
have not contributed to cutting the deficit.
The savings from benefit reforms have been
offset by the cost of raising the tax-free income tax allowance.
But those with incomes in the bottom half have
lost more on average from benefit and tax credit changes than they have gained
from the higher tax allowance.”
Paola De Agostini
is Senior Research Officer at the Institute
for Social and Economic Research
(ISER) at
the University of Essex.
John Hills
is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the
Centre for Analysis of
Social Exclusion (CASE)
at the London School of Economics.
Holly
Sutherland
is Research Professor and Director of
EUROMOD
at the Institute for Social and
Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex. The
paper was prepared
as part of CASE’s
Social Policy in a Cold Climate
programme, which is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Nuffield
Foundation, and with London-specific analysis funded by the Trust for London.
The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of
the funders. The analysis uses the
tax-benefit model, EUROMOD, based at the University of Essex.
News Posted: 16 November 2014 [ Back to the Top]
How has the
significant cuts to local authority funding affected front-line services? There
had undoubtedly been enormous strain on services and front-line staff,
with councils have argued that the limits to efficiency have been reached.
Amanda Fitzgerald
presents findings from a
new report
for the Trust for London into the most deprived communities in London.
Read the blog at LSE British Politics and Policy
News Posted: 23 October 2014 [ Back to the Top]
CASE researchers, with funding from Trust for London, have examined,
through an in-depth case study approach, three London councils’ responses to
the cuts, as well as what those responses have meant for services and
residents of one of the most deprived wards of each borough. The research
focused on services for families with under-fives, young people 16-24 and
older people 65+.
Key findings include:
- Front line services for under-fives and young people have been
impacted in all wards (with the exception of under-fives services in
Camden) but not to the degree we might have expected from the extent
of local government spending cuts.
- Staff reductions were widely reported in these services and
were the principal change in most cases. Those reductions were
being offset as far as possible through paid staff doing more and
through use of volunteers. For this reason more extensive impact to
the front line had to this point been avoided.
- Services for older people had been affected more than services
for under-fives and young people in all three wards. Losses of day
centres, reductions in activities, or higher charges had occurred
across the case studies. Adult Social Care makes up the largest
part of council spending and as councils are obliged to protect
statutory provision discretionary community services are being
substantially impacted.
- In the wards where children’s centre activity provision had been
reduced parents reported worsening behavioural problems. Parents on
low incomes were not able to offset those service reductions by
paying for private services.
- Older residents who had experienced changes in local provision
reported greater boredom. In some cases the changes have created a
barrier to access (e.g. inability to pay higher charges) and leaving
those older residents more isolated. Social ties were being severed
with service losses.
- VCS organisations we spoke with are under increasing pressure,
particularly smaller, locally specific ones. We have to question
the long-term potential of VCS provision supplying the antidote to
council reductions at the local level given the extent of
competition for funding reported. We have noted here the reduction
in all wards of funding to VCS providers of older people’s services
and, importantly, the impact of that on older residents’ lives.
- This work reflects a snapshot at a particular point in time,
just before local elections in 2014 and before a second round of
budget cuts. The situation is likely to get worse. Several of the
service managers we spoke with were unsure of the future of their
job or the service they managed.
A summary is available to
download here (pdf) and the
full
report available here
The report is part of the Social
Policy in a Cold Climate research programme, jointly funded by
Nuffield Foundation,
Joseph Rowntree Foundation and
Trust for London.
News Posted: 16 October 2014 [ Back to the Top]
On 18th July 2014 the final report was launched from a year long research
project conducted by the London School of Economics for the London Borough of
Newham into the impact of debt and the experience of life on a low income.
The rising cost of living, stagnant wages and welfare reform have placed many
households under increased financial strain. This report, commissioned by the
London Borough of Newham and written independently by Professor Anne Power,
offers a powerful insight into the lives of some of the hardest pressed people
in our country. This research highlights the struggle of both working and
non-working households and explores the relationship between financial
planning and skills and attitudes to credit and debt. The report also provides a
valuable insight into the real impact of welfare reforms and helps to inform
Newham’s ongoing work to strengthen resilience.
A panel discussion was
held with Polly Toynbee (Guardian), Vidhya Alakeson (Resolution Foundation),
Professor Anne Power (LSE) and Sir Robin Wales (Mayor of Newham). The discussion
considered the drivers and solutions to increasing levels of personal debt and
what can be done locally, nationally and within the community to build economic
resilience. The London Borough of Newham also outlined its plans to respond to
the analysis in the report.
The full report is
available here (pdf). An
audio recording of the launch event is also
available.
Watch
an interview with a
Newham resident who took part in the research.
News Posted: 18 July 2014 [ Back to the Top]
Housing Plus is
about social landlords adopting a wider role in communities where they
are based. The bedroom tax, benefit caps and other welfare reforms are having
a dramatic impact on the lives of social housing tenants.
This workshop will
explore why the problem of work now dominates, why public opinion has become
hostile to supporting the unemployed, why social landlords need their tenants to
work, and how they can achieve this. By
bringing together social landlords from all over the country who are trying out
new ideas or are anxious to uncover more good ideas, we hope to uncover some
solutions. Read the
Think Tank summary and programme here and fill out the
registration form here.
News Posted: 03 July 2014 [ Back to the Top]
Date: Monday 9 June 2014
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue:
Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Professor Paul Cheshire, Rachel
Fisher and others to be announced
Chair: Mark Easton
The governor of the Bank of England recently warned that the overheated
housing market represents the "biggest risk" to the country’s long-term
recovery.
Mark Carney said rising property prices and the subsequent
increase in large-value mortgages, could lead to a "debt overhang" capable of
destabilising the economy. He spoke of "deep, deep structural problems" in the
market, with demand for homes outstripping supply. In his native Canada, there
are half as many people yet twice as many houses are built there every year as
in the UK. On average over the past four years fewer market houses have been
built than at any time since WW2.
BBC Home Affairs editor Mark Easton asks this expert panel, including LSE’s
Paul Cheshire and Rachel Fisher of the National Housing Federation, why this
country has failed to build enough affordable homes and looks at what can be
done to solve our housing crisis.
The recording will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 11 June at 20.02
BST.
Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #wheretolive
This event is free and open to all with no ticket or pre-registration
required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For any queries see
LSE Events FAQ or contact us at events@lse.ac.uk 0207
955 6043.
Media queries: please contact the Press Office if you would
like to request a press seat or have a media query about this event, email
LSE.Press.Events@lse.ac.uk.
Please note that press seats are usually allocated at least 24 hours before each
event.
From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly
recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing
on the day of the event
News Posted: 09 June 2014 [ Back to the Top]
Welfare reforms will prompt many social housing tenants to make fundamental changes around their choice of jobs, housing, and how they manage their money day to day. LSE Housing and Communities has been asked by nine housing associations in the South West of England to understand these changes from a tenant’s point of view.
This is the baseline report of a longitudinal survey commissioned by the South West Housing Association Influence and Leadership Organisation (HAILO). The study aims to monitor the emerging consequences of benefit changes on working age social housing residents as these reforms progress by following 200 social housing tenants across the South West over an extended period of time.
Read the full report here.
News Posted: 25 March 2014 [ Back to the Top]
Tuesday 18th
March 2014, 6.30-8.00pm
A ground-breaking examination of the UK’s
dangerous relationship with the housing market, and how easily it could, will,
come crashing down
From “generation rent” to rising homelessness, the
government’s Help to Buy scheme to the proposed “mansion
tax”, and negative equity to the recent sell-off of a London
council house for £3million, housing is the one issue that
affects us all.
Housing was at the heart of the
financial collapse, and in this ground-breaking new book,
Danny Dorling argues that housing is the defining
issue of our times.
Tracing how we got to our
current crisis and how housing has come to reflect class and
wealth in Britain, All That Is Solid radically
shows that the solution to our problems - rising
homelessness, a generation priced out of home ownership - is
not, as is widely assumed, building more homes. Inequality,
he argues, is what we really need to overcome.
Danny
Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor in Geography at the
University of Oxford, will launch his new book All that
is Solid: The Great Housing Disaster in a joint LSE
Housing and Communities and CASE event at LSE on Tuesday 18th
March (6.30-8.00pm) in TW1.G.01, Ground Floor,
Tower One, Clements Passage,
London WC2A 2AZ. This event is free but
booking is essential. To request a seat for this
event, please email
lsehousingandcommunities@lse.ac.uk
or telephone 020 7955 6330.
“Dorling is
that rare university professor: expert, politically engaged
and able to explain simply why his subject matters. He
describes modern Britain as the most unequal society since
Dickens's times, and picks apart the orthodoxies that allow
such
unfairness.”
Martin Wainwright, the Guardian
Danny
Dorling: All that is Solid: The Great Housing Disaster
London: Allen Lane
Hardback £20.00 ISBN 9781846147159
E-book also available
Published on 27th February 2014
To order this book please see:
www.penguin.co.uk |
|
News Posted: 18 March 2014 [ Back to the Top]
Monday 3rd
– Tuesday 4th
March 2014
Trafford Hall, near Chester
Housing Plus is about social landlords adopting a wider role in
communities where they are based. The bedroom tax, benefit caps and other
welfare reforms are having a dramatic impact on the lives of social housing
tenants, particularly those under 60. Landlords face big challenges in
helping their tenants and collecting rents which pay for housing services.
This is the second special Think Tank for social housing tenants and it
is important for tenant voices to be heard, and their experiences are
shared. We want to gather real evidence from the ground and share it widely. We
are interested in discovering who are the most vulnerable and worst affected
tenants, whether there is more that can be done, whether landlords are
developing better access routes and more support for tenants as a result of the
pressures of welfare reform, and also whether welfare reform is being properly
connected to work and job opportunities.
Download
(pdf)
The
full event programme
News Posted: 07 February 2014 [ Back to the Top]
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