This is the second research report form the first stage of a programme of research, Social Policy in a Cold Climate, designed to examine the effects of the major economic and political changes in the UK since 2007, particularly their impact on the distribution of wealth, poverty, income inequality and spatial difference. As the economic crisis hit after 2007 unemployment rose, average wages fell behind inflation, the stock market crashed, and the house price boom came to an end. There were winners as well as losers in the early years of the crisis. How the earnings, incomes and wealth of different social groups were affected – and who did best and worst within each group – presents a complex picture, which this report sets out to describe.