This report from UK think tank the Fabian Society shows how the government can make people better off in highly challenging circumstances. At the next general election, ministers will be judged by Ronald Reagan’s famous question: “are you better off than you were?” When voters considered this question last year, they answered ‘no’ – and...

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation explores minimum unit pricing for alcohol and the case for a windfall tax. Evidence shows that minimum unit pricing reduces alcohol harm. However, a key objection to the policy of setting a floor price for alcohol is that it unfairly creates a financial windfall for...

This report from UK think tank the Fabian Society makes the case for a fully funded fair pay agreement in order to tackle the workforce crisis and improve the quality of care. The treatment of our social care workforce is a national scandal. England’s 1.6 million care workers suffer from endemic low pay and poor...

This report from UK think tank the Resolution Foundation looks at tax, utility bill and social security changes in April 2025. April is always a month of tax changes, and this year, two stand out in their impact on the public finances: the rise in employer National Insurance, and the continuing freezing of the Income...

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Development Studies looks at how much zakat we can estimate is being paid in Pakistan every year – and where the money is going. Every year, hundreds of millions of Muslims across the world pay a proportion of their wealth as zakat, one of the five...

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Development Studies highlights the significance of informality in understanding gendered tax burdens. Recent policy debates have increasingly focused on the gendered impacts of taxation, yet much of this work is rooted in high-income contexts, overlooking the realities of low- and middle-income countries where most individuals, particularly...

This report from UK think tank CEPEO examines the impact of debt forgiveness in promoting higher education outcomes. This paper examines the impact of a debt forgiveness program implemented in 2011 on education and labour market outcomes for student loan holders who pursued university education in Colombia. The policy generated a sharp discontinuity in the...

This report from UK think tank Carnegie UK summarises the UK's tax, spend and fiscal policy issues against the backdrop of our collective wellbeing. This paper sets out a summary of relevant tax, spend and fiscal policy issues in the UK today against the backdrop of our current collective wellbeing. The paper seeks opinion on...

This report from UK think tank Civitas suggests that wage stagnation may be an important driver of rising net recipience in the medium term. According to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics, more than half of households in the United Kingdom (52.6 per cent) receive more from the state in benefits (including...

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation outlines strategies for creating a skills system that adequately encourages genuine apprenticeships. In this report, Baroness Alison Wolf calls for the new Growth and Skills Levy to focus on young people, have greater local involvement, and distinguish between apprenticeships and workplace upskilling. The current system...

This report from UK think tank the Centre for Policy Studies shows that it will cost businesses £2,367 more to employ a full-time worker on the minimum wage than it did in 2024. This year will be the most expensive on record for businesses who employ workers on the minimum wage, according to new analysis....

This report from UK think tank IPPR puts forward a new typology of wealth and expands the conversation from wealth tax to a broader range of policy instruments. Life chances are increasingly determined by what you inherit, not what you do. But what can we do about it? More people own assets today than in...

This report from UK think tank Localis explores funding local government in this Parliament and beyond. The financial problems facing local government in England are well rehearsed. The deteriorating impact of shrinking budgets on public services and the state of the public realm formed an important part of the Labour Party’s platform of ‘change’ in...

This report from UK think tank the Centre for Policy Studies discusses the age of the super-state. New analysis from the Centre for Policy Studies shows that, as a result of changes announced in this week’s Budget, state spending is set to increase to an astonishing £1.5 trillion by 2029/30. The briefing paper argues that...

This report from UK think tank the Resolution Foundation puts the autumn budget 2024 decisions on tax, spending and borrowing into context. This has been the most anticipated Budget of modern times. It had to wrestle with profound – and sometimes conflicting – challenges: fixing the strained public services; repairing failing public services; and breaking...