According to data from the Office for National Statistics, full-time employees in the UK work longer hours than the European Union average.  In the EU, the average person works 41.6 hours, compared to the UK average of 42.7 hours.

Denmark was the country with the shortest working hours by full-time employees, at 39.1 hours per week.

Infact only employees in Greece and Austria worked longer hours than UK workers, with both working 43.7 hours.

The report also concluded that the United Kingdom also has the highest percentage of part-time workers with 27%.  This is compared to only 20% across the EU.
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Factory workers in the UK worked 44 hours a week respectively, with very little unpaid overtime and the report went on to show that crane drivers had the longest working hours, at a whopping 52.8 hours per week.

So there you have it; while average hours are falling across the UK due partly to the recession, UK workers are still doing the third longest shifts in Europe.

Meanwhile, IFS have gone on record as saying that George Osborne’s economic plans could very well result in a sharp drop in household income.

It is expected that real household income will drop by 7.4% on average compared to the periods 2009-10 and 2012-13.

The IFS said that the median average income was set to stagnate.  They said they were running out of words of sufficient strength to describe how bad the current economic climate was due in part to George Osborne’s plans.

Its director, Paul Johnson, said “Mr Osborne’s second Autumn Statement had more in common with some of Mr Brown’s Budgets and pre-Budget reports than perhaps either of them would care to admit.”

The coalition government gave the job of forecasting the UK’s economy to the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. 

The Office for Budget Responsibility revised down its growth forecasts for the next few years.  These revised growth forecasts’ will mean that Mr Osborne must make further cuts to public spending if he wishes hit his desired target of cutting the deficit.

To sum up, this means that all of us will be hit harder and things are set to get worse before they get better.

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Plummeting incomes will mean the largest drop for middle-income households since the 1970s, states a written report through the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The IFS estimates 2 years “dominated by a huge decline” in earnings, driving 600,000 additional children directly into poverty, By 2013 we will see 3.1 million children in poverty in the United kingdom, in accordance with the IFS projections.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson stated benefits modifications would deal with poverty by “making work pay off”. The review through the IFS independent financial research organisation estimates the amount of poverty within the years around 2015-16 and after that in 2020.

It makes use of the complex phrase of “absolute” poverty, which isn’t in regards to what individuals can or can’t afford but a measure with regards to additional earnings – in this instance thought as being beneath 60% of the average income, modified for the cost of living. The IFS states that last year, 2.5 million young children and 2.1 million working-age parents had been residing in “absolute” poverty.

However it warns that within the next 2 years poverty levels are certain to get worse. By 2013, the IFS forecasts the amount of children in absolute poverty will probably rise by 600,000, peaking at 3.1 million, together with 2.5 million working-age parents and 4 million working-age adults with no children.

The review also issues a huge caution of challenging times for individuals in the so-called “squeezed middle” – with average income dropping by 7%, after the cost of living has been considered, the sharpest decrease in 35 years. Following 2013 and the prepared launch of the Universal Credit scheme, the IFS is predicting that absolute child poverty is going to tumble by 100,000 to 3 million inside 2014 and 2015.

There will be much more optimism for middle earners, with income increasing gradually after 2013 – though it is forecasted that 2015 income levels will certainly be beneath where they were 6 years previously.

The prospects stay unclear for the poorest within 2015 – with the IFS projecting that the quantity of working-age adults in absolute poverty will continue to be at 2.5 million for parents but will increase to 4.1 million for working-age adults without having children. By 2020, the IFS is actually predicting there’ll be 4.7 million working-age adults with no children in absolute poverty, an increase of 1.6 million in comparison with 2009.

The review, financed through the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, additionally verifies that goals placed in 2010 to reduce absolute child poverty by 2020 to 5% will likely be missed by a broad margin – with the IFS predicting it will likely be 23%. The Universal Credit currently being suggested by the government is made to substitute six income-related work-based benefits.

Government entities want a method where individuals are better off in work compared to what they will be on benefits. The IFS claims this would directly lessen the amount of children in poverty by 450,000, and also adults in poverty by 600,000, from 2020-21.

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