Budget 2021/22: five things to watch for
The Scottish Budget for 2021/22 will be published this Thursday. This article discusses the context and highlights five key issues to look out for.
Scotland’s Budget Report: 2020
Recent positive news on vaccine development raises expectations that 2021/22 will herald the beginnings of a recovery from both the health and economic shocks caused by Covid in 2020. With this backdrop, what are the implications for the Scottish Government’s budget for 2021/22 – due to be published on 28th January?
On exempting NHS bonus payments from tax
The Scottish Government has announced that NHS and care workers will receive a one-off thankyou payment of £500 this year. Like any bonus payment, these will be taxed. But where will tax revenues go, and is there a case for exempting the bonus from tax?
The Spending Review and the latest data on the Scottish Economy
In this latest podcast, Emma Congreve, Mairi Spowage and David Eiser of the FAI talk about the what the Spending Review means for Scotland and the outlook for the public expenditure, as well as a round-up of the latest news on GDP out this week.
Spending Review 2020 and Scotland
Today, Rishi Sunak set out his spending plans for the next financial year. what does this mean for spending in Scotland?
The evolution of the Scottish Budget 2020/21 – and a look forward to the Spending Review
The Scottish Budget has been allocated over £8bn to address the implications of Covid-19 in 2020/21. This article considers how those funds have been allocated, reviews the fiscal issues and tensions that have emerged , and considers the possible implications of the UK Government Spending Review 2020 for the Scottish BUdget in 2021/22
Insecure work and underemployment
Underemployment measures the extent to which workers would like to work longer hours, given the opportunity. This article examines trends in underemployment by group, finding that it is high among the young and those employed on insecure forms of contract.
Implications of hours worked for poverty and inequality
How do weekly hours worked affect earnings inequality and in-work poverty? This article examines this question, coinciding with the launch of our Interim Report for the Standard Life Foundation.
A cautionary look at what the new earnings data can tell us about the impact of the pandemic.
The Covid pandemic has had a huge impact on our working lives but tracking this in the available economic survey data has proven challenging. This week the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released the latest results from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) but these too have been affected by challenges around Covid 19.
Should a UK wealth tax be devolved?
The Covid-19 crisis has renewed interest in the merits of establishing a tax on net wealth in the UK. But if a wealth tax were introduced in the UK, should it operate as a UK tax determined by the Westminster government, or would there be a case for operating the tax – or aspects of it – at a devolved level?