Ben joined the IFS in 2017. His work has two main strands. The first is research into the design, performance and distributional implications of the health and social care system. The second is detailed analysis of UK government fiscal policy and spending decisions. Since 2021, he has also been an editor of the IFS Green Budget, which examines the major economic challenges and policy trade-offs facing the Chancellor ahead of the Budget each year. Before joining the IFS, Ben worked in the private sector as an actuarial consultant.
Education
MSc (Distinction) Economics, University College London, 2020
BA (1st Class) Economics and Management, University of Oxford, 2016
Expanding access to health care is once again high on the US political agenda, as is concern about those who are being “left behind.” But is universal health care that is largely free at the point of use sufficient to eliminate inequalities in health care use? To explore this question, we studied variation in the use of hospital care among education-level-defined groups of older adults in England, before and after controlling for differences in health status. In England, the National Health Service (NHS) provides health care free to all, but the growth rate for NHS funding has slowed markedly since 2010 during a widespread austerity program, potentially increasing inequalities in access and use.
This government has pushed geographic inequalities to the top of the policy agenda. In his very first speech as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson made clear his intent to boost economic performance outside of London and the South East, to ‘level up’ across the country and to revive the fortunes of the UK’s ‘left-behind’ towns and cities.
At this event, IFS researchers presented the findings of two chapters of the 2020 IFS Green Budget, addressing the big questions around the 2020 Spending Review and ‘levelling up’.
This paper discusses likely implications for healthcare delivery in the short and medium term of the responses to the coronavirus pandemic, focusing primarily on the implications for non‐coronavirus patients.
The coronavirus pandemic will have huge impacts on the National Health Service (NHS). Patients suffering from the illness are placing unprecedented demands on acute care, particularly on intensive care units (ICUs). This has led to an effort to dramatically increase the resources available to NHS hospitals in treating these patients, involving reorganisation of hospital facilities, redeployment of existing staff and a drive to bring in recently retired and newly graduated staff to fight the pandemic.
Event
26 February 2020 at 09:30<p>One Birdcage Walk, Westminster, London SW1H 9JJ</p>
Two weeks ahead of what could be the most fiscally important Budget for years, IFS researchers will set out their latest assessment of the constraints within which the Chancellor is operating and will assess his options.
