If you’re reading this on your computer at work you need to switch it off and go home! But before you do that, let me briefly explain why. Today is Work Your Proper Hours Day. This is the first day of the year when the 5.4m people who regularly work unpaid overtime effectively start getting…
With real wages continuing to fall and under-employment hitting a record high, many people are rightly questioning whether the UK’s economic recovery is passing them by. Few people seem to be feeling a change. But new TUC analysis published today highlights one effect of recovery that people really are feeling – We’re spending longer getting…
Across Britain people have been living through the tightest squeeze in living standards in nearly century. Since 2009 wages have failed to keep with rising prices to the extent that a worker on a median income of around £26,000 is around £4,000 worse off today than four years ago. The sharp fall in the value…
The TUC has done lots of research on the impact of the government’s welfare reforms and benefit cuts on ordinary families. Every year, we update our tax credit calculator to show the impact of benefit changes on family incomes.
Living standards are falling for the first time in decades, with rising unemployment and real wage cuts causing domestic spending to fall and our economy to shrink. But shrinking pay is not a recent problem. The proportion of national wealth that goes on wages – the ‘wage output’ ratio – has been falling for over…
Depressed about your return to work? I don’t want to make things worse but there’s a one in five chance you’ll effectively be working for free until the 24th of February. Every year the TUC number crunches the amount of unpaid overtime worked by employees across the UK and calculates at what point of the…
The abolition of education maintenance allowance (EMA) is currently winning the race to be 2010’s least favourite cut among Touchstone readers. My personal hunch is that this is because it ticks a number of boxes. Scrapping EMA is a) irrational – as the IFS has pointed out EMA has improved education attainment and supported social…
With Christmas just around the corner there is always a few events you can guarantee – bright lights, desperate shoppers and festive top tens. Touchstone Blog is getting in on the act with the launch of CUTS Factor, which we’ll be running between now and Christmas. But this is a top ten list with a…
So the Government has scored 47% in its interim performance test, based on its first three months in office. Who needs Alan Budd and the Office for Budget Responsibility when you have the kind of independent rigorous analysis kindly provided free of charge by the Taxpayers’ Alliance. As an ordinary taxpayer I should probably take…