Boosting innovation and productivity

              Boosting innovation and productivity


Income inequality is higher in the UK than in several other European countries, and is set to increase over the coming years. Child poverty is increasingly concentrated among one-earner couples, and policies supporting this group could have the most impact on reducing poverty in the future. Policy implications A key underlying trend for low household income is the extremely slow growth in men's pay levels, primarily affecting one-earner couples with children who have higher poverty rates than other working families. Incomes for this group have performed particularly badly over the last 20 years. There are no single easy policy solutions to boost the living standards of this group. Policies to support non-working partners back into work could be explored, such as addressing the weak financial incentives (for instance the cost of childcare), discrimination or cultural barriers to maternal employment. Means-tested benefits for one-earner couples could be increased. However, targeting additional means-tested support specifically at this group would further weaken the financial incentives for both parents to seek paid work.




                                                                 Urooj Qureshi