Income from work and benefits too often falls far short of what's needed to live with dignity.

🏘️ Many families are also being hit hard by the two-child limit, trapping hundreds of thousands of children in poverty.

The government must take action at the Budget next week.

@chrisbelfield.bsky.social

📉 While inflation is down from the eye-watering levels of 2022, where it peaked at 11.1%, prices remain far higher than before the pandemic.

In that time, wages have seen very low growth and Universal Credit levels remain unlinked from the cost of essential goods.

It's vital that the government starts exploring policies that provide the level of support required and grasp the scale of the impact that can be made.

Read our full briefing here 🔽

www.jrf.org.uk/cost-of-livi...

supporting households through the transition to net zero as the energy market continues to evolve.

🔁 While our current energy system is failing to ensure households can afford the essential energy needed for a decent quality of life, it doesn't have to be this way.

🔎 The government should fund this discount – in full or in part- to offer a universal cut to energy bills and deliver on their manifesto commitments.

The RBT is a helpful policy tool because it is flexible.

It has the potential to improve living standards now while also ➡

🏷️ We need a solution that provides support to the majority of households, with the biggest savings for those on the lowest incomes.

That's why the government should give all households a discount on their essential energy use using a rising block tariff (RBT).

✂️ More recently, cutting VAT from energy bills has been proposed as the solution.

Yet, this would see the highest cash savings go to higher income, higher consuming households, and risks undermining attempts to reduce carbon emissions.

So what is the answer?

These range from expanding the Warm Homes Discount to introducing an income-based social tariff.

❌ But these come with limits. WHD doesn’t reach far enough to support all the households that need it, and questions remain about how the social tariff would work in practice.

The Prime Minister has committed to reducing household energy bills by £300-a-year by 2030.

So it's clear that the government must take bold action to avoid living standards declining further.

There are many policy proposals for how to address energy costs. 🔽

📈 Higher standards in the labour market will have a hugely positive impact on workers, and the economy as a whole.

We look forward to seeing the results from this initial 'Vanguard period'.

You can read our research with Scope in full here: www.jrf.org.uk/work/unlocki...

The Mayfield Review’s focus on ways employers could do more, and the savings and productivity gains this could generate, is absolutely right.

🔏 Employers have an important and undervalued role to play in the health and security of workers.

Full report: www.gov.uk/government/p...

3) Support this with evidence to guide financial, operational, legal and cultural improvements needed in the employment space.

As our research with disability charity Scope concluded, Govt must focus on the root causes holding people who are disabled or have a health condition back from work.

1) Establish a Healthy Working Lifecycle standard, so employers and employees can improve health, prevent job exits & boost inclusion of disabled people in work.

2) Build a new Workplace Health Provision service to support employers/employees with this.

And 3) (cont. 🔽)