Britons are working harder for less as non-pensioners struggle for growth
The last few decades have seen lower-working, non-pensioner families working hard but not reaping the rewards of the their labour.
A new report from the Resolution Foundation outlines the plight of ‘Unsung Britain’, the poorer half of non-pensioner families in the United Kingdom, noting that their incomes have been growing at a rate of only 0.5% every year.
This stagnation has been felt by every family in the United Kingdom except for pensioners, but its effects are particularly acute among those in the lower half of the income distribution.
The Resolution Foundation said that all of the growth in employment over the past decades can be attributed to workers in lower-income families, but they have been rewarded only with stubbornly flat living standards.
“It is no wonder, then, that many lower-income families in Britain feel
hard done by,” the think tank said.
The graph below shows the stark disparity between pensioner and non-pensioner families in terms of disposable income.
It published a new forecast that measures living standards by household disposable income among non-pensioners, and noted that the picture is finally turning more positive for lower-income families; growth for families in ‘Unsung Britain’ is projected at 4.7%.
This is an improvement over the last year, when growth was skewed towards higher-income families.
The long-term outlook for poorer, non-pensioner families remains relatively grim, however.
Discounting the strong growth expected for this group in the coming year, real incomes are set to fall among high- and low-income families alike.
Frozen personal tax thresholds, often referred to as a stealth tax, will erode the small gains made in real wage growth over this period.
