IFS's response to government announcement of work placements for young people on long-term benefits

The Chancellor has pledged to guarantee paid work for every young person who has been on Universal Credit for 18 months without being in education or employment. Reporting this…

IFS analysis: Labour Proposes ‘Growth and Skills’ levy, reinstating Traineeships as a part of a 'Youth Guarantee’

The Labour Party has today recommitted to its plan to broaden the existing Apprenticeship Levy into a ‘Growth and Skills’ Levy, allowing firms to use…

IFS: Autumn Statement Analysis with Paul Johnson

Event details for today’s IFS post-Autumn Statement analysis: IFS Director Paul Johnson’s opening remarks: Inflation may be coming down, but it was increases in the…

IFS: Adult skills spending down by a third since early 2000s – but it’s about much more than funding levels

Since its peak in 2003–04, total public spending on adult skills has fallen by 31%. Alongside that, the average amount invested in training by employers…

IFS: Growth in school costs significantly outpacing inflation

The government is currently presiding over an increase in schools funding in England which is reversing past cuts to per-pupil spending. We project that school…

IFS: Large mismatches between the funding different areas receive for public services and their spending needs

Funding systems for many public services are doing a poor job of aligning funding with spending need across England, with deprived areas getting a lower…

Seven in ten school children on universal credit are not eligible for free school meals

In England, state school pupils whose families claim universal credit are only eligible for free school meals if their family’s post-tax earnings are less than…

Autumn Statement leaves colleges, nurseries and universities out in the cold

Colleges, nurseries and universities facing severe financial challenges from higher-than-expected inflation In the 2022 Autumn Statement, the Chancellor provided an additional £2.3 billion in funding…

Public service cuts and disjointed funding systems for local services put ‘Levelling Up’ in danger

A new report out today finds that the current funding systems for schools, councils, public health and the police are ‘not fit for purpose’, do…

Festival of Social Science 2022

As part of this year’s festival, researchers from the IFS will be involved in a series of digital events covering a huge range of topics. All of…

What happened to youth apprenticeships?

Half a century ago around one third of teenage boys entered apprenticeships on leaving school, mostly into programmes of 3-4 years in manual trades. A…

The missing middle of higher technical learners

Compared to other countries, England has a high share of graduates: almost half of young people now progress to higher education. Yet at the same…

The importance of second chances in our education system

Across the country, there are millions of adults with poor qualifications and low levels of skills. In fact, a quarter of working-age adults in England…

IFS: Lack of progress on closing educational inequalities disadvantaging millions throughout life

New research on inequalities, carried out for the IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, finds that disadvantaged pupils start school…

School spending per pupil in 2024 to remain 3% below 2010 levels in real-terms once you account for actual costs faced by schools

Between 2009-10 and 2019-20, we estimate that school spending per pupil in England fell by 9% in real-terms.  In the 2019 and 2021 Spending Review,…

Student living cost support cut to lowest level in seven years

The value of government support for living costs for university students from the poorest families will fall to its lowest level in seven years in…

Plans will leave spending on adult education and apprenticeships 25% below 2010 levels by 2025

Total spending on adult education and apprenticeships fell by 38% in real-terms between 2010–11 and 2020–21, with a 50% fall in spending on classroom-based adult…

Proposed minimum eligibility requirements for student loans could reduce higher education participation for ethnic minorities and poorer students

New IFS research finds that a blanket minimum eligibility requirement (MER) for access to student loans would be a highly imperfect way of improving student…

Student loans reform is a leap into the unknown

New analysis, “Student loans reform is a leap into the unknown” by the Institute for Fiscal Studies of the package of reforms to student loans…

Government proposals for teacher pay will extend decade long squeeze

Last week, the Department for Education published its evidence to the independent pay review body for teacher pay. This includes proposals for teacher pay in…

Levelling Up White Paper: A long term plan for jobs, education and skills essential to success

It is widely expected that Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove will publish the Government’s ‘Levelling Up White Paper’ tomorrow, Wednesday 2 February. This is said…

Barely any change to gender earnings gap in last 25 years once you account for increases in women’s education

The average working-age woman in the UK earned 40% less than her male counterpart in 2019 (@TheIFS). This is because, among 20- to 55-year-olds not…

Government must match its mantra about ‘levelling up’ with sufficient investment in schools, colleges, children and young people

Education spending changes put a major brake on levelling up The cuts to education spending over the last decade are effectively without precedent in post-war…