IFS calls for a fairer UK after Covid brings greater inequality
Thinktank finds the vulnerable hit hardest, and says policies are needed to repair the damage
A leading thinktank has called for action to make Britain a fairer country after its research showed that the Covid-19 pandemic had led to greater inequality.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the most vulnerable - those on lower incomes, the young, the least-educated and people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds - had been hit hardest by the crisis.
Mortality rates in the most deprived communities were about twice as high as those in the least deprived. BAME groups were more likely to die than the white majority, in part reflecting their occupations.
The better-paid and more highly educated had found it easier to cope financially with the crisis. Among graduates, there had been a 7% fall in the number doing any paid work; among non-graduates it was 17%.
Children from poorer families found it harder to do schoolwork during lockdown, received less online teaching, and have been more likely to miss school since September.
Elderly people have suffered high mortality rates from Covid-19, but the young have felt the economic consequences, with the under-25s more than twice as likely as older workers to have lost their jobs.
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