Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2014
▻http://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/comms/r96.pdf
Our first such report, in 2002, highlighted robust year-on-year growth in living standards and falling levels of poverty, while inequality was rising gradually. This latest report covers data up to and including 2012–13. The picture is strikingly different. Average incomes have just begun to stabilise after falling sharply in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Income inequality has fallen back to levels last seen one or two decades ago, depending on the measure. And whilst relative poverty has also been falling, this is only because the poverty line fell in line with average incomes. In absolute terms, the poor have become worse off in recent years – particularly when their housing costs are properly accounted for. Important new themes have emerged, including the falling-behind of young adults as they have struggled in the labour market and large differences in trends in the cost of housing across the population as mortgage interest rates have plummeted.