A survey of the GB benefit system

Understand this issue

Cutting inheritance tax isn’t quite as simple as its proponents suggest

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"There are dozens of tax cuts that would be some combination of more equitable and better designed to promote economic efficiency and growth."

20 November 2023

IFS responds to changes to DWP work capability assessments

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We respond to proposed changes by the government to reform the work capability assessment used to determine entitlement to incapacity benefits.

5 September 2023

Levelling Up: Is inequality between places Britain’s biggest problem?

podcast

Since 2019, 'levelling up' has been at the forefront of the political agenda - but is inequality between places really Britain’s biggest problem?

16 August 2023

Policy analysis

Incapacity benefits changes strengthen work incentives for over a million, but hundreds of thousands left worse off

press release

520,000 individuals would see their benefit entitlements fall under the reform, typically by £390 per month.

26 October 2023

Wealthiest 1% would get half the benefit of scrapping inheritance tax, with an average tax cut of £1 million

press release

If non-spousal inheritances passed on next year were to be equally shared between all 25-year-olds, each would receive around £120,000.

27 September 2023

Early retirement increasingly concentrated amongst the wealthy

press release

We provide new evidence on retirement patterns in the UK.

1 November 2023

Academic research

The labor market effects of disability benefit loss

working paper

Leveraging age and health cutoffs in the reassessment, the paper estimates employment responses to loss or reduction of benefits.

29 September 2023

Identification analysis in models with unrestricted latent variables: Fixed effects and initial conditions

working paper

Examples of application to some static and dynamic binary, ordered and multiple discrete choice panel data models are presented.

11 October 2023

The effects of pension reforms on physician labour supply: Evidence from the English NHS

working paper

We examine labour supply responses of senior doctors following a pension reform that moved NHS staff from a final salary to career average pension.

29 September 2023