Taxes and benefits

This Commentary looks at two asset-based welfare policies and asks how they might work and what rationale lies behind them.

This paper is an evaluation of the British labor market program the "New Deal for the Young Unemployed" using administrative panel data on individuals between 1982 and 1999.

Election briefing note 5 (2001)

Election 2001: Business taxes under Labour

In this paper I evaluate the New Deal in a historical and international context.

Over the past 20 years the incidence of relative poverty among Britain's children has tripled.

This paper examines the history of the Labout government elected in 1974, using it as a test-case for various 'New Right' economic and political theories that suggest that government expansion eventually hits structural limits.

This evaluation focuses on the four models of EMA that were introduced into the

In this report, the Committee considers the issue of tax equity between the employed and self-employed. This complex topic raises many questions, one of which relates to the way in which the tax system classifies workers. Do changing work patterns indicate the need for a new approach to classification for tax purposes? Is the case law that currently governs the area sufficiently robust and clear, especially in the light of the new burden placed upon it by the so-called IR35 legislation on personal service companies? What is the relation between classification of workers for taxation and their classification in other areas of law, particularly employment law? These are some of the issues addressed in this paper.

In the November 2000 Pre-Budget Report, the government announced a major range of measures for pensioners. Some come into operation in April 2001, while others follow in 2002 and 2003. The most important aspects of the package comprised: above-inflation increases in the retirement pension; substantially above-inflation increases in the means-tested minimum income guarantee (MIG); and the introduction of a new element into the means-tested benefit system for pensioners, known as the pension credit. Overall, the package means the government will pay over 4 billion a year extra to pensioners (2000 prices) by 200304. It represents a very substantial redistribution in favour of pensioners, and particularly those on low incomes.

Exploring the attributes of the Working Families' Tax Credit programme.

The income transfer systems for low-income families in the US and the UK try both to reduce

This commentary discusses the rationale for directing financial support to families with children and assesses options for a new integrated child credit.

This Briefing Note reviews some of the major issues in the design and implementation of R&D tax credits. R&D tax credits have become a popular policy tool for encouraging R&D spending by business, with many countries offering subsidies of this form. Recent empirical evidence suggests that R&D tax credits are an effective instrument in stimulating additional R&D. However, in order to be desirable, a policy needs to be cost-effective and implementable.

This Election Briefing Note looks at whether we can see a difference between the parties in their approach to taxes and benefits.