Good Times, Bad Times by Hills, John -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Dedication List of figures Glossary and acronyms Acknowledgements Preface to revised edition 1. Introduction: ‘Them and us’

Static or active? Two families Structure of the book

2. Are the poor too expensive? Redistribution and the welfare state

The poor got too expensive How unequal are we? Without the welfare state we would be much more unequal Mechanics of redistribution But this is what we want The paradox of redistribution? But did the poor get too expensive? So who did get more expensive? Summary and conclusions

3. The long view: Social policies and the life cycle

Cycles of want and plenty Incomes and the life cycle today Changes in life cycle redistribution Changing effects of policy What does it all add up to? The stakes have got bigger Summary and conclusions

4. It’s complicated: High frequency living

Life is bumpy - family incomes across the year Are fluctuating incomes very common? But aren’t people on benefits stuck on them? A brief history of in-work support, from Family Income Supplement to tax credits Universal Credit - solving the problems of tax credits? So what could possibly go wrong? Summary and conclusions

5. Good years, bad years: Reacting to change

Tangled spaghetti Why do incomes change?

Demography Earnings Disability

How much income mobility is there? Do poor people stay poor? Who should live in social housing? Student finance and the delayed action means test Summary and conclusions

6. The long wave: Wealth and retirement

Overall wealth inequalities Wealth and age Baby-boomers versus the ‘jilted’ generation? The right house at the right time Pensions policy and problems Pensions and changing lives Policies towards wealth accumulation - inequity and incoherence

Taxes on capital assets Pension saving Other kinds of saving Paying for long-term care Help to accumulate

Summary and conclusions

7. The longest wave: From generation to generation

Background and life chances Differences set in early Does money really matter? The school years Averages are not destiny After school And so to work The scale of intergenerational links It matters more in the UK (and the US) to choose the right parents It isn’t only income What does all this mean for the aims of policy? Summary and conclusions

8. A moving backdrop: Economic crisis, cuts, growth and ageing

Fairness in a changing world What does ‘unchanged policy’ look like? Coalition impacts Further Conservative reforms and cuts How did other countries react to the crisis? The power of doing nothing: social security and taxation in the long term It’s all going to get more difficult Summary and conclusions

9. Conclusion: Britain’s misunderstood welfare state

The lives of ‘others’ Give and take? To richer and to poorer Living on a roller coaster Life cycles of ups and downs Wealth - and how we help some to accumulate more From parents to children Lean times and future prospects The welfare state is not just ‘welfare’ Not trying hard enough On the fiddle Myths have consequences There is no ‘them and us’ - just us

Endnotes, figure sources and figure notes

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Figure sources and notes Chapter 3 Figure sources and notes Chapter 4 Figure sources and notes Chapter 5 Figure sources and notes Chapter 6 Figure sources and notes Chapter 7 Figure sources and notes Chapter 8 Figure sources and notes Chapter 9 Figure sources and notes

References

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