Robert Joyce

In this report, we use a novel source of real-time data on households’ finances from Money Dashboard, a budgeting app, to explore the impacts of the crisis so far on earnings, incomes and financial distress, and how they are evolving. We complement this with household survey data to explain and verify the key trends.

This report examines how living standards – most commonly measured by households’ incomes – were changing in the UK up to approximately the eve of the current COVID-19 crisis, using the latest official household income data covering years up to 2018–19.

Much of the debate about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, our responses to it, and the longer-term legacy that it will leave has quickly become a discussion about various forms of inequality.

Journal article | Covid Economics: Vetted and Real-Time Papers

At this event, IFS researchers discussed some of the ways in which policy should rise to the challenge of getting people back to work safely and productively.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented social distancing measures around the world to contain the spread of the virus. The UK has, like many countries, effectively closed down entire sectors of its economy and severely limited activity in many other sectors. This curtailing of activity is likely to lead to a sharp recession.