Yesterday we looked at the options for people who have seen their earnings disappear but are excluded from the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self Employed Income Support Scheme. For those who can’t find alternative employment, the social security system will be the place many turn for support. And this is indeed what is happening. Universal Credit (UC) is where new claimants will head, and yesterday the DWP gave an update on UK caseload. Over the last fortnight, they have processed 950,000 successful claims, ten times the usual amount for a fortnightly period.
There is no doubt that support for the UK workforce during this Coronavirus outbreak announced so far has been completely unprecedented. Despite this, we know it does not provide support to each and every person affected. This blog summarises what we know about some of the gaps and looks at options available if government were to extend support further.
Just three weeks ago, the OBR published forecasts of 1.1% growth in 2020.
How times have changed.
On the very same day, the Chancellor warned us to ignore these forecasts and to prepare for a ‘significant impact’ on our economy.
Since then the situation has deteriorated further. Hopes that the recession that we are now in would be ‘v-shaped’ – i.e. a sharp downturn followed by a bounce-back in the months to follow – have sadly largely disappeared.
The latest data, and emerging insights from on the ground, suggests that the effects of this crisis are going to be long-lasting.
In this blog we assess why.
Data released yesterday on household incomes confirms what we’ve known for a while – the 2010s was a decade of chronic income stagnation.
Median weekly disposable household income in Scotland in 2018/19 was £514 – identical to the figure for the UK. But income growth since 2009/10 has averaged just 0.3 per cent per annum.Continue reading
This week we entered a world of lockdown with non-essential businesses asked to close and most of us told to stay at home. Just a few weeks ago, the scale of the shutdown of our economy would have been unthinkable. And yet, here we are.
Our Fraser of Allander Commentary and Podcast earlier this week had a deeper look at what we know so far about the economic impact and also featured contributions from John Macintosh of Deloitte on the impact on business. In this blog we give a summary of new announcements from government that apply to us here in Scotland.