 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 unexpectedly rapid ageing of the population makes it urgent that we design a system that will encourage those who can provide for their own retirement while helping those who reach the end of their working lives with insufficient wealth to sustain what society regards as an acceptable standard of living. These objectives frequently - and perhaps inherently - conflict. In dealing as best they can with the inevitable trade-offs, policymakers need to have three important questions (among many others) in mind.
First, is the financial support offered to pensioners by the state in retirement sustainable in terms of the burden it places on the working population, who pick up most of the bill in the form of taxation? Second, are the mechanisms by which the private financial sector helps people save for retirement sustainable in the sharing of risk between employers and employees? And, third, is the way in which the state and private systems interact sustainable in the sense that the combination promises people a reasonable degree of financial security without creating unduly powerful disincentives for them to work and save? Research in this area looks at these questions. We look in detail at the impact of various government reforms and proposals for reform to the pension system. Search
Paul Johnson and Gary Stears
One-and-a-half million pensioners are dependent on the minimum means-tested benefit, income support.
Paul Johnson and Gary Stears
We show that older male pensioners have substantially lower incomes than younger pensioners.
Richard Disney and Edward Whitehouse
Paul Johnson and Gary Stears
The basic state retirement pension is payable irrespective of means but it is a contributory benefit, not a universal benefit.
Richard Disney and Gary Stears
The paper compares the change in pension plan coverage in the 1980s in the US and the UK.
Private pensions seem likely to provide the dominant source of income for the majority of retired workers in the future.
Agar Brugiavini and Richard Disney
Individuals in the UK now face an effective choice between joining different types of pension plan.
James Banks, Richard Blundell and Sarah Tanner
In this paper we ask whether households are saving enough for their retirement.
Costas Meghir and Whitehouse, E
We study transitions in and out of work for men over the age of forty in order to investigate the principal determinants of retirement age.
Richard Disney, Thomas Gallagher and Andrew Henley
The study, using the 1988-89 Retirement Survey in Britain: (i) estimates expenditure on housing relative to income for the sample aged 55-69, (ii) simulates optimal housing/consumption allocations for a simple life cycle model and (iii) examines the relationship between 'excess' holdings of housing, financial dissaving and other portfolio behaviour subsequent to retirement.
Browse publications & research
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 Started: 01 February 2012
Started: 01 January 2012
Started: 11 April 2011
Started: 01 May 2004
Started: 01 May 2004
   Past research into pension reform has contributed to evidence given to government on public service pensions.
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.
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