Institute for Fiscal Studies

The first cut, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies

26 May 2010 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

The new coalition government has announced a £6.2bn headline cut to public spending in the current year. Since £500m is being recycled into additional spending or tax cuts, and the £704m earmarked for devolved administrations does not have to be found until next year, the likely reduction in borrowing in 2010/11 is around £5bn. This is less than a tenth of the fiscal repair job that Alistair Darling’s March 2010 Budget forecast suggested will be needed over the next few years. Read more...

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Do the poor really pay more in taxes? By the Institute for Fiscal Studies

12 April 2010 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

The Liberal Democrats have, once again, claimed that the poor pay more of their income in tax than the rich, and that this gap has got larger under Labour. But, by ignoring the fact that the poor get most of this income from the state in benefit and tax credit payments, and by overstating the extent to which indirect taxes are paid by the poor, this comparison is meaningless at best and misleading at worst. Read more...

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Taxing credulity? By Robert Chote and Carl Emmerson

15 March 2010 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

Last week Chancellor Alistair Darling warned us not to expect a giveaway in next week’s Budget, while his Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, reassured us that the Government could halve the deficit by 2013-14 without announcing any further tax increases. If both statements prove correct – no pre-election tax giveaway and no new post-election tax takeaway – then this would break the pattern of the last four general elections. Read more...

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Costing a council tax freeze, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies

4 March 2010 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

In his 2008 Conservative party conference speech, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne announced that an incoming Tory government would freeze council tax in England for two years. IFS researchers estimated at the time that if this policy were implemented in 2009-10 and 2010-11 it would cost £1bn in its second year, in 2008-09 prices. Over the past month, the parties have been disputing how much it would cost if an incoming Conservative government were to implement it in 2011-12 and 2012-13. Read more...

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Tougher than Thatcher? By the Institute for Fiscal Studies

26 February 2010 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

‘Whoever wins the election, Labour or Conservative, is going to have to cut spending. That is not something that Margaret Thatcher actually did. So tougher than Margaret Thatcher.” So said George Osborne on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme this morning – and the numbers by and large bear him out. Read more...

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Marry in haste, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies

25 January 2010 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

The issue of marriage and family life looks set to be a major election battleground. In recent weeks, the Conservative Party’s policy on supporting marriage in the tax system – restated in the family section of their draft manifesto published this week – has been under the spotlight. A green paper on family policy is due to be released by the government next week. Recently published analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies – and two new projects funded by the Nuffield Foundation – should shed light on some of these issues. Read more...

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More unequal – but why? By the Institute for Fiscal Studies

16 December 2009 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

It is widely known that income inequality has risen substantially over the past thirty years. During the 1980′s, in particular, inequality rose dramatically – to levels from which it has never subsequently fallen. But what lies behind this increase in income inequality? In recent work, commissioned by the National Equality Panel, IFS researchers attempt to answer this question by ‘decomposing’ changes in inequality into the effects of various different forces. Read more...

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What’s the point of the Child Poverty Bill? By the Institute for Fiscal Studies

20 November 2009 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

One of the 13 bills in the recent Queen’s Speech was the Child Poverty Bill, carried over from the previous Parliamentary Session. The most eye-catching part of the Bill is the duty it would place on the secretary of state for work and pensions to ensure that child poverty in 2020/21 is eradicated (how eradication is defined is discussed below). But it would also establish a Child Poverty Commission to advise the government on its strategy, require future governments to publish a strategy and report annually on progress, and place duties on local authorities and other “delivery partners” in England to work together to tackle child poverty, as the House of Commons Library explains. Read more...

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For richer or poorer, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies

13 October 2009 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

One of David Cameron’s key themes in his speech to the Conservative Party conference was that Labour has “made the poorest poorer”, “left youth unemployment higher” and “made inequality greater”. How fair are these accusations? Read more...

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Childcare lessons, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies

30 September 2009 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

Gordon Brown’s speech to the Labour party conference gave more detail about an existing ambition of this government to provide free early education and childcare places for 2-year-old children in England. Read more...

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