 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.
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The increased adoption of means-tested benefits and tax credits in the UK and elsewhere has refocused employment policy on creating incentives for lower-skilled individuals to gain and retain employment. This has been the subject of increased attention in our research.
Ageing of the population has also focused attention on incentives for early retirement in the benefit and pension systems. Quantifying their impact is essential in designing effective policy and evaluating policy reform. IFS has carried out extensive modelling of labour supply decisions, and these models are being developed further to address important new tax, benefit and pension policy questions. There are three main areas where further development is planned. First, labour supply decisions within the family. This area is particularly relevant given the growing importance of in-work benefits and childcare subsidies. Second, incentives in the tax and welfare system for employment retention and earnings enhancement once in the labour market. This is closely allied to the issue of wage progression and our research on human capital accumulation. Third, labour supply decisions for older workers and the complex interactions between early retirement incentives in pension systems, incapacity benefit rules and working opportunities for older people. Search
Today the Government will publish a White Paper detailing plans to replace the current Basic State Pension and State Second Pension with a single state pension. The proposed reforms would be a welcome simplification of the current rather complex rules, particularly in the short run, but they also imply a reduction in the state pensions that most people born after around 1970 can expect to receive from the state. This cut in the generosity of pension benefits for currently young people will help reduce public spending on pensioners in the longer-run as pressures from an ageing population intensify. Reducing state support will also increase the incentives for younger cohorts to save privately for their retirement.
Slides and Audio from the presentation given at the IFS Public Economics Lecture series, December 2012
This report examines a range of quantitative evidence to shed light on how current older cohorts of defined contribution (DC) pension fund holders are approaching and deadline with retirement and annuitisation.
This article was published in 'Britain in 2013 - the nation in focus'.
Chapter from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing 2012
Paper given at the 15th Annual Research Conference of De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam
This report provides a new assessment of the proportion of people aged between 50 and the State Pension Age (SPA) who are at risk of having inadequate resources in retirement and considers the characteristics associated with the risk of such inadequacy.
These are among the findings from two new reports by IFS researchers launched today, that use household survey data to investigate how well prepared for retirement individuals approaching the state pension age are, and how the wealth of older individuals has been affected by the financial crisis.
This report is the fifth wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a survey of people of 50 and over in England.
Browse publications & research
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   Our ERA analysis contributed to the evaluation literature and informed the Government about the validity of the experimental findings.
Past research into pension reform has contributed to evidence given to government on public service pensions.
Proposals by IFS researchers to simplify the benefit system and strengthen the incentives for low-skilled adults to work have attracted the attention of Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
IFS evaluated the Pathways to Work programme. This work proved key to the policy debate about how to get disability benefit claimants in work.
The Mirrlees Review shows the importance IFS attaches to high quality empirical evidence in the design of tax and benefit system.
IFS researchers found that the In-Work Credit encouraged lone parents to leave benefit more quickly but did not increase work retention.
IFS researchers develop a model of the Mexican tax system that will be used by the Mexican Government analysts.
Reform of the complex French state pension system was informed by recommendations by IFS researchers.
IFS researchers present and discuss new research on retirement saving with a group of business leaders and policy makers.
Changes to the benefit system recommended by IFS researchers have made working less than 16 hours a week more attractive to benefit recipients.
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