In the year prior to the pandemic, nearly half of children in lone-parent families were in relative poverty – defined as having an income of less than 60% of median incomes adjusted for household size.
The environment that children are raised in, and their development of cognitive, and social and emotional skills affect the subsequent trajectory of their lives. Inequalities between children in these domains open up very early in life.
"There is much to do to get childcare policy right, but let’s not mix it up with sorting out the present cost-of-living crisis." Paul Johnson writes for The Times.
They might not know it yet, and it is likely to pass the rest of us by entirely, but for more than two and half million families, today is a very big day.
The source of top incomes, who gets them and how they are taxed is important for understanding inequalities. How have top incomes and their source been changing over time? Who is in the top 1% - are they employees, or business owners or rentiers? How much tax do the top pay and should they pay more?