In a joint research project with the University of Berkeley, IFS researchers assessed the ways the UK tax and benefit system affects incentives to work, and suggested reforms based on any assessment that accounted for likely behavioural responses.

This work was presented to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) during their project on strengthening work incentives in the UK benefit system. The CSJ report, Dynamic Benefits, adopted the same method for modelling behavioural responses to tax and benefit changes, and came to similar conclusions about the desirability of simplifying the benefit system, and strengthening incentives for low-skilled adults to work.

The current Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, who founded the CSJ, has said that this approach to welfare reform “reflects my determination to make it simpler and more transparent so that work always pays.”