Has Labour made work pay?
A review of the Labour Government’s success in improving the financial reward to work for low-income families.
Since 1997, the Labour Government has instigate a series of reforms aimed at helping to make work pay more than not working, and to make work pay enough to help families avoid poverty.
This report is the first to provide an overview of all such policies since 1997, and to provide an impartial analysis of the evidence of the Government’s success to date. The report examines the key outcomes targeted by ‘make work pay’ policies, showing trends in the proportion of parents in employment, and the number of children in households where no adult is in paid work. It reviews studies which estimate the contribution that government policies made to these changes. And it provides new evidence on the impact of changes to personal taxes, tax credits and benefits on measures of financial work incentives.
The authors also anticipate where this policy agenda might take the Government in the future.
Available in electronic format only.
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