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Eradicating Child Poverty in Britain: Welfare Reform and Children Since 1997

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Author Info
Mike Brewer
Paul Gregg ()

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Abstract

In 1997 the new Labour government in the UK inherited a situation where nearly one in 5 children lived in a household where no adult worked and around one in 3 lived in relative poverty. Children had replaced pensioners as the poorest group in society. The incoming government set about an ambitious set of reforms designed to reduce poverty and worklessness amongst families with children. This policy reform agenda contained some features akin to the welfare reform process being undertaken in the US since 1996. But with one fundamental difference, that welfare payments to jobless families rose rapidly and there is no time restriction in access to these payments. This paper describes the key features of the welfare reform process and documents the reforms to welfare payments and in particular contrasts them with the US system. The results show that the reformed UK welfare support system, taxes and benefits, for children is more generous to low-income families with children but less for better off families. So the UK system is more progressive among families with children. The paper goes on to look at the emerging evidence of the impact of the UK policy reform process on poverty and welfare dependence.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK in its series The Centre for Market and Public Organisation with number 02/052.

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Length: 41 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2002
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:bri:cmpowp:02/052

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Related research
Keywords: welfare reform; poverty; children;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Stephen Nickell & Patricia Jones & Glenda Quintini, 2002. "A Picture of Job Insecurity Facing British Men," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 1-27, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Bruce Bradbury & Markus Jantti, 1999. "Child Poverty across Industrialized Nations," Innocenti Occasional Papers, Economic Policy Series iopeps99/70, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. [Downloadable!]
  3. William Gale, 1997. "What can America learn from the British tax system?," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 341-369, November. [Downloadable!]
  4. Currie, Janet & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Does Head Start Make a Difference?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 341-64, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Paul Gregg & Jonathan Wadsworth, . "More work in fewer households?," NIESR Discussion Papers 72, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
  6. David T. Ellwood & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2000. "The Middle Class Parent Penalty: Child Benefits in the U.S. Tax Code," NBER Working Papers 8031, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. David G. Blanchflower & Richard B. Freeman, 2000. "Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number blan00-1.
  8. Nada Eissa & Hilary Williamson Hoynes, 1998. "The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Labor Supply of Married Couples," NBER Working Papers 6856, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Richard Blundell & Alan Duncan & Julian McCrae & Costas Meghir, 2000. "The labour market impact of the working families’ tax credit," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 75-103, March. [Downloadable!]
  10. David Piachaud & Holly Sutherland, 2000. "How Effective is the British Government's Attempt to Reduce Child Poverty?," Innocenti Working Papers inwopa00/6, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. [Downloadable!]
  11. Gregg, Paul, 2001. "The Impact of Youth Unemployment on Adult Unemployment in the NCDS," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(475), pages F626-53, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Mike Brewer, 2000. "Comparing in-work benefits and financial work incentives for low-income families in the US and the UK," IFS Working Papers W00/16, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
  13. Stephen P. Jenkins & Christian Schluter & Gert G. Wagner, 2001. "The Dynamics of Child Poverty: Britain and Germany Compared," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 233, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  14. Eissa, Nada & Liebman, Jeffrey B, 1996. "Labor Supply Response to the Earned Income Tax Credit," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 111(2), pages 605-37, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  15. Hilary Hoynes & Richard Blundell, 2001. "Has "In-Work" Benefit Reform Helped the Labour Market?," NBER Working Papers 8546, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  16. repec:cep:sticas:038 is not listed on IDEAS
  17. Gregg, Paul & Wadsworth, Jonathan, 2000. "Mind the Gap, Please: The Changing Nature of Entry Jobs in Britain," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 67(268), pages 499-524, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Blundell, Richard, 2000. "Work Incentives and 'In-Work' Benefit Reforms: A Review," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 27-44, Spring.
  19. Richard Layard & Steven McIntosh & Anna Vignoles, 2002. "Britains Record on Skills," CEE Discussion Papers 0023, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  20. Gosling, Amanda & Machin, Stephen & Meghir, Costas, 2000. "The Changing Distribution of Male Wages in the U.K," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 67(4), pages 635-66, October.
    Other versions:
  21. Richard Dickens & David T. Ellwood, 2001. "Whither Poverty in Great Britain and the United States? The Determinants of Changing Poverty and Whether Work Will Work," NBER Working Papers 8253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Mike Brewer, 2001. "Comparing in-work benefits and the reward to work for families with children in the US and the UK," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 41-77, January. [Downloadable!]
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Wolfgang Ochel, 2003. "Welfare to Work in the United Kingdom," CESifo DICE Report, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 1(2), pages 56-62, 02. [Downloadable!]
  2. Wolfgang Ochel, 2001. "Financial Incentives to Work -- Conceptions and Results in Great Britain, Ireland and Canada," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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