United Kingdom

People on middle incomes face a high chance of being lower down the income distribution next year, due largely to unstable job markets, an analysis published from Professor Donald Hirsch at the Financial Fairness Trust and Eleni Karagiannaki from the London School of Economics, finds.

Lone parents are more likely to work than a decade ago, but even on middle incomes most of their jobs are now insecure. For singles without children on middle incomes, job insecurity has also grown.

The report highlights the importance of helping people on middle incomes to save. Increased income insecurity makes it all the more important to be able to save for a rainy day. But the report calculates that middle income households building rainy day and pension savings, while also paying back student loans and facing high housing costs, can be left with too little remaining income for an acceptable living standard today.