{"id":62775,"date":"2024-05-31T02:45:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T02:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/calls-to-boost-households-living-standards\/"},"modified":"2024-05-31T02:45:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T02:45:03","slug":"calls-to-boost-households-living-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/calls-to-boost-households-living-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls to boost households’ living standards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Calls<\/div>


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Kevin Peachey,<\/span>Cost of living correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A new IFS report suggests sluggish income growth since 2009 and lower working-age incomes than other major economies<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Living standards have been in the doldrums, a new report has suggested, with calls for any new government to help boost productivity.<\/p>\n

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), an independent think tank, said income growth had been slow for rich, poor, old and young.<\/p>\n

While events such as the pandemic and energy price rises had influenced the situation, the UK had fallen behind some other countries, it said.<\/p>\n

The IFS said the next government had a critical role in boosting productivity and, in turn, people’s incomes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Citizens Advice said politicians of all parties needed to be clearer about how they would tackle issues over living standards.<\/p>\n

“Right now, whether you can make your household budget add up is the only thing that matters,” the charity said in a blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Slow income growth<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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In its report, the IFS analysed trends since 2009 and the fall-out from the financial crisis, in the last year of a Labour government, throughout Conservative-led governments since to 2023.<\/p>\n

It said median incomes (the mid-point of the income scale) had grown by 6% over that period. <\/p>\n

In a 13-year period before the recession of 2008, income growth of 30% would have been expected, it said.<\/p>\n

While the highest income households saw the weakest income growth, people across the range of ages and wages had been affected.<\/p>\n

And the IFS said that working-age incomes had fared poorly when compared with some other major economies, reversing the position seen before 2007.<\/p>\n

Working-age income growth of 6% from 2007 to 2019 compared with 12% in the US and 16% in Germany, it said, with little change since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Other trends highlighted by the review, which was funded by the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust – an independent charitable trust – included:<\/p>\n