Report: The Living Standards Outlook 2018

Prospects for household incomes and inequalities over the next five years have been outlined in the first dedicated living standards outlook from the Resolution Foundation.

Key findings:

• Typical incomes stagnated in 2017-18, and are projected to grow slowly over the next five years.
• Low to middle income working-age households or the ‘just about managing’ face three years of falling or flat incomes.
• Pensions auto-enrolment has successfully boosted the number of pension savers. But minimum contribution rate rises in the next two years place significant downward pressure on disposable income growth for middle-income working-age households.
• An upgrade in the forecast for wages, with a return to pre-crisis rates of pay growth, would greatly improve income levels but – all else equal – further widen inequality.