Ruth's academic career comes on the back of ten years working as a government economist in the Department of Health and Social Security and as an economic consultant. She has held posts at King’s College London and the Universities of Leicester, Essex, and East Anglia.

Although a relatively recent member of CPEC, she has collaborated for over 20 years with CPEC colleagues on research into long-term care finance.

Ruth's research interests include the economic, health, and social policy implications of individual and population ageing with a particular focus on financial provision for later life, long-term care funding for older people, and the extra costs of disability in later life. She pursues these interests mainly through the analysis of large-scale household survey data and the use of micro-simulation techniques to model policy reform options. She has developed and continues to maintain a dynamic microsimulation model of long-term care.