Maudie joined JRF in 2023 from the Ministry of Social Development in New Zealand, where she worked as a senior policy adviser on the social security system. Her work focused on income adequacy and reducing child poverty in New Zealand. Maudie worked on major reforms such as the benefit rate increases of July 2021 and April 2022 and she led the Ministry’s advice on the cost of living crisis. Her research interests include fiscal and economic policy.
A year into the new Labour Government, key hardship measures show no improvement - over 7 million low-income families are still going without essentials.
While on average all families are forecast to see a fall in living standards this Government, families on the lowest incomes are set to bear the brunt of the pain.
The Government must tackle stagnant levels of hardship as part of their mission for growth, with worse living standards to come if no action is taken.
JRF is calling on the Government to place a strategy for household economic security at the heart of its strategy for growth.
Low wages in care work are a false economy causing recruitment and retention issues, and lost capacity. We urgently need a new pay settlement for care workers.
With levels of hardship in May 2024 unchanged for the lowest-income families in the last year, the cost of living crisis is far from over.
Novel JRF modelling shows what the latest economic forecasts mean for UK households ahead of the March Budget.
This short briefing assesses the decisions made by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statement against what people are actually worried about.
Millions of people are still in the grip of high and rising prices, a rapid rise in interest rates, and a deteriorating job market. This remains a dangerously evolving crisis. The Autumn Statement must address the breadth and depth of hardship in the UK - anything less will be a failure.