Poverty

Today the IFS published a detailed examination of what happened to living standards, to poverty and to inequality over Labour's 13 years in office. Amongst other findings, this shows that income inequality rose under Labour. Much of the explanation for this can be found in the fast growth in the incomes of the very richest, and in particular of the incomes of just the top one or two percent. These very high earners have seen their incomes pull away from those of the large majority.

These slides were delivered at the IFS Briefing 'Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2011'.

These slides were delivered at the IFS Briefing 'Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2011'.

Until recently microfinance - the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship - was cheered as an excellent policy to alleviate poverty. But more recently such policies have been viewed less favourably. What does the evidence show on the effectiveness of such schemes, and how can they be reformed to operate better?

This presentation focuses on the impact of tax and benefit changes announced in the Budget and previously on households in London.

This government, alongside most of its predecessors, is concerned about social mobility. As the coalition government prepares to launch its own strategy for tackling social mobility, recent work at IFS exploring the literature on social mobility has highlighted some important conclusions that the government would be wise to bear in mind.

This presentation was delivered at the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, Ireland on 31st March.

This presentation was delivered on 30th March 2011, at an Empirical Legal Research seminar, at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh

These slides were delivered at the IFS post-Budget briefing 2011.

This presentation was given as part of the CASE Social Exclusion Seminar series.