 Facts and figures about UK taxes, benefits and public spending.
Income distribution, poverty and inequality.
Analysing government fiscal forecasts and tax and spending.
Analysis of the fiscal choices an independent Scotland would face.
Case studies that give a flavour of the areas where IFS research has an impact on society.
Reforming the tax system for the 21st century.
A peer-reviewed quarterly journal publishing articles by academics and practitioners.
|
On 6 October 2003, the pension credit replaced the minimum income guarantee as the principal means-tested benefit for families containing an individual aged 60 or over. This Briefing Note examines the impact of this reform. A finding is that with regards to the governments objectives of giving more resources to low- to middle-income pensioners, rewarding pensioners for having saved in the past and encouraging people of working age to save for the future, the pension credit is likely to achieve the first two but not the third. This Briefing Note is set out as follows. Section 2 describes how the pension credit operates and why the problems that occurred with the Inland Revenues administration of the new tax credits for families with children in April 2003 should not occur with the pension credit. The distributional impact of the reform is shown in Section 3. Section 4 discusses the inevitable problem of incomplete take-up of the new payment. Section 5 discusses the likely impact of the pension credit on saving and Section 6 discusses some of the longer-term issues that it raises. Section 7 concludes. Search |
  View all IFS Briefing Notes in the series
Recent IFS Briefing Notes
Price-based measures to reduce alcohol consumption
This briefing note considers the effectiveness of the proposed minimum unit price of alcohol.
Better Budgets: making tax policy work
This Briefing Note discusses ways of improving the tax system.
Autumn Statement 2012: More fiscal pain to come?
This briefing not examined the outlook for the public finances in the run-up to the 2012 Autumn Statement.
|
|
|
|
© The Institute for Fiscal Studies
Limited by Guarantee,Registered in England: 954616 7 Ridgmount Street London WC1E 7AE Registered Charity: 258815 VAT no: GB 394 5830 17 Website design by Pynk and Fluffy |
||||||
