Inequalities in education, skills, and incomes in the UK: the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic

This report seeks to set out the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on inequalities in the UK. Prior to the pandemic, there were already large differences in the economic prosperity of richer and poorer people, between different groups in society, and between different parts of the country. We argue that the nature of these pre-existing inequalities is key to understanding the longer-term impact of Covid-19. The pandemic has affected inequalities in education, training, wages, employment, health, gender, ethnicity, and across generations. It has also opened up new fissures along dimensions that were previously less significant – working at home, and home schooling, for example. Our aim is to examine the inequalities that the country faced prior to the pandemic, analyse how they have changed since March 2020, and draw out implications for the potential future path of these inequalities in the years to come