Last week, the majority of COVID-19 restrictions in England were removed, marking the biggest return to “normality” that we have seen since the beginning of the pandemic. However, this does not mean the end of restrictions for everybody, as IF Researcher, Lizzie Simpson, discusses how the new settlement affects younger people differently, and how this… Read more »
Category: Employment
Intergenerational fairness: an economic approach
Matthew Oulton, Secretary of the UK’s Young Fabians Economy and Finance Network, economics student and young Labour activist from the Wirral, joins IF’s Worldwide Blog Week to discuss, from a left perspective, how to achieve intergenerational fairness post COVID-19 After a year of locking up the young largely to save the old, it’s hard to… Read more »
How inflation could blow up the younger generation
Commodity prices have already gone up sharply around the world and many other prices seem to be headed north. To fight COVID-19 the government has printed huge quantities of new money and many economists are predicting the result will be a sharp rise in inflation. Angus Hanton, IF Co-founder, asks what this would mean for the old and the… Read more »
Young people hit hardest by rising unemployment
As we approach the milestone landmark of a year since the first UK lockdown began, newly released data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal just how damaging this past year has been for young people’s employment prospects. Lizzie Simpson, IF Researcher, explains
Economic impact of COVID-19 continues to disadvantage younger people
Last week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published new data detailing the current state of the UK’s labour market and businesses. This has revealed not only the damaging impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to have on the UK’s economy as a whole, but also the disproportionally negative impact that it is having… Read more »
Government should lift the state pension “triple lock” next year, argues Treasury Select Committee
A new report from the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee has made a range of recommendations regarding how the government should address some of the economic challenges which the COVID-19 crisis has caused. One of its most eye-catching suggestions is that the “triple lock” on the State Pension should be lifted next year to… Read more »
“Crisis cohort”: What it means to graduate into a recession
As we enter what is forecast to be the worst recession in 300 years, one cohort that has felt the full extent of the COVID-19 pandemic is the graduating class of 2020. IF Research Intern Ellie Maher assesses what it means to graduate into a recession, and the impacts of this on both short and… Read more »
The scandal of state-sponsored age discrimination
The age bands that are applied to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage are examples of age discrimination, surely? Rosie Neville, second-year Economics and Politics student at the University of Bristol, finds this government-prescribed policy unacceptable – scandalous, even
A kick in the teeth
As the government launches its “Kickstart” scheme specifically aimed to help young people at risk of long-term unemployment, IF Research Intern Hugo Till fears that it will lead to them becoming entrapped in the nightmarish web of Universal Credit
Government Apprenticeships: Groundhog Day
Apprenticeship schemes are regularly wheeled out as the solution to getting young people into work, but they have consistently failed. Will it be any different in the new COVID world? IF supporter Ned Walker sets out the reasons why we might not be overly optimistic