A comprehensive study of inequality was launched recently by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In our first post, we explored the different dimensions of inequality investigated within the review and how twenty-eight different datasets in the UK Data Service collection underpinned the analysis. In this second post, we explore how it is already creating impact.
Privilege and disadvantage do not happen in isolation.
They build over a person’s lifetime, from a child’s early development through to a worker’s chance of career progression and beyond. Understanding how these economic, social, and geographic divides overlap underpins efforts to create fairer communities.
By mapping and understanding how these disadvantages intersect across the UK, the IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities provides the evidence base needed to address them.
Six years of rigorous research underpin the review, backed up with a multitude of data available from the UK Data Service. The review delivers practical insights for decision-makers, showing where targeted policy choices can break cycles of inequality. Here, we explore key recommendations from the review and where it is already making a real difference.
Translating evidence into action
Inequality in modern Britain cannot simply be addressed by quick fixes and simple redistribution. The evidence from the IFS Deaton Review shows that meaningful change comes from:
- understanding why disparities take root
- choosing tools that address root causes
- being transparent about the trade-offs involved in policy choices
The IFS ran a workshop in April 2026 – Inequalities and public policy: implications of the IFS Deaton Review. This, along with the publication Public policy and inequalities: lessons for policymakers from the IFS Deaton Review and the commentary piece by Jonathan Cribb and Helen Miller From evidence to action: what six years of research tells us about challenging inequalities, provide some key thoughts on how to approach inequality.
Education and early years
Educational gaps open up long before children enter a classroom, making early support essential for long-term reduction of inequality.
The review demonstrates that support at age three creates foundations that carry into adulthood. Helping parents build language-rich home environments through community hubs and health services eases developmental stress early.
Expanding access to funded nursery places and free school breakfast clubs benefits both children and parents. Household budgets stretch further, while children start the day fed, focused, and ready to learn.
Schools in lower-income areas need targeted resources to hire and keep experienced teachers, run targeted catch-up sessions, and provide the specialist support that wealthier schools take for granted.
Work and jobs
Improving job quality requires looking beyond emergency safety nets to fix the barriers holding workers back.
The review shows that low pay happens for different reasons. Where there are skills gaps, workers need practical training and transferable qualifications. When one firm dominates local hiring, workers benefit from fair pay standards and competing employers. Where good jobs are not easy to reach, reliable public transport makes them more accessible.
Minimum wages and Universal Credit keep families afloat, but they do not automatically create better jobs. Losing up to 70p of Universal Credit for every extra pound earned is effectively a penalty for taking on extra shifts or stepping up to a promotion.
Wage structures also matter. If stepping up to a supervisor’s role brings extra stress for only a few pence more an hour, workers have little reason to take on the extra responsibility.
Geography and place
Where you live in the UK shapes your choices more than it should, with a disproportionate number of high-paying jobs in London and the South East. This leaves the UK with some of the widest regional divides in the developed world, cutting whole communities off from the industries driving economic growth.
To start addressing these gaps needs strategic choices and an honest conversation about trade-offs.
For example, improving transport links into London gives people quicker access to existing jobs, but risks draining talent away from local communities. Building up regional cities rebalances the economy and job opportunities but needs sustained investment over decades.
Policies cannot work in isolation. Smaller short-term, often competitive grants deliver ‘quick win’ headlines for a few ‘winners’, but rarely make a long-term difference. Planned, longer-term funding distributed to regional hubs creates growth both in those hubs and in surrounding areas.
Wealth and taxation
As housing costs and asset prices outpace earnings, success is increasingly defined by what you inherit, not what you earn. Bridging this gap means rethinking how we support working families and tax wealth.
Wealth taxes sound appealing but the review highlights that they are administratively complex and encourage high earners to move assets abroad.
The review identifies that modernising current tax structures offers a faster, fairer route forward. Reforming outdated property bands, closing inheritance loopholes, and taxing profits on wealth at the exact same rate as income from work all help reduce wealth inequality.
Impact of the review
National government
The review has been repeatedly cited in parliamentary debates and select committee inquiries. Its insights directly informed national debate surrounding early intervention.
The Work and Pensions Committee drew on the review’s data on the two-child benefit limit as part of its exploration of how welfare constraints impact early cognitive development by restricting the material resources of low-income families.
Similarly, the Health and Social Care Committee drew on the review’s findings to push the Department for Education away from viewing childcare merely as a back-to-work incentive for parents. To reach the DfE’s 75% school readiness target, the committee argued that early childhood policy must stand on its own as a developmental tool. That means investing directly in home environments and maternal mental health from birth, stopping early disadvantage before it takes root.
Devolved administrations
The Scottish Government used the review’s evidence on cumulative financial and social risks to defend its Scottish Child Payment. Scotland also drew on the review to streamline benefit applications and remove bureaucratic hurdles, delivering support directly to eligible families.
The Welsh Government drew directly on the review’s evidence when embedding maternal mental health screenings into its Healthy Child Wales clinical pathways. Confronted by wider public service budget pressures, Senedd policymakers and local health boards used the review’s metrics to defend and protect these universal screenings.
Combined authorities and local government
Combined authorities have used the review to target funding where it was needed most.
The West Midlands Combined Authority used the review’s findings on childhood adversity to make a clear case for targeted early support. This evidence gave local councils and NHS Integrated Care Boards the backing required to defend funding for frontline health visitors, ensuring early language checks became a routine part of local family hub visits.
In some communities, school readiness drops from over 90% in wealthy areas to just 72% in deprived ones. To tackle this divide, Liverpool City Region and Leeds City Council used the review’s data to build targeted early-years plans and secure local funding. Their evidence-led approach earned them a place in a major government pilot, joining up health visiting and school data to spot children’s developmental needs earlier.
Third sector
Leading charities and research bodies used the review to overhaul how they support families and campaign for change:
NSPCC and the Anna Freud Centre reshaped early health visits, moving away from diagnostic checklists toward active support for mother-baby bonding in the earliest months.
Major charities like the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Child Poverty Action Group, and Nesta have reshaped their campaigns to show that financial security and maternal mental health are inseparable foundations for a child’s learning.
The Sutton Trust, Institute for Government, and Coram exposed a critical flaw in expanding universal childcare: without targeted support, subsidised places benefit wealthier parents while disadvantaged families are pushed to the back of the queue.
Looking ahead
A study of this scale will continue to reveal new insights and create impact long after publication. The UK Data Service impact team will continue to uncover the findings, recommendations and impact of this major review of inequalities.
How is your organisation using data to address inequalities, or where do you see the biggest evidence gaps in policy delivery? Get in touch to share your story.
Meet the team
(Left) Finn Dymond-Green (They/Them) is the Director of Impact at the UK Data Service.
(Middle) Eve Little (She/Her) is the Research Impact and Engagement Manager at the UK Data Service.
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