 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.
|
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
Raising revenue to pay for the proposals suggested by the Dilnot Commission on Funding of Care and Support offers an opportunity for the government to rationalise the tax and benefit system for those above State Pension Age, Paul Johnson, the director of the IFS, will say at a seminar on social care funding today.
Made to Pensions Research Network, University of Westminster 22 June 2012
Presented at Queen's University, Belfast. At a meeting about establishing a new Northern Irish ageing study (known as NICOLA)
Presented at the Mirrlees Review: Tax Reform for a Modern Economy, May 4, 2012, Istanbul
Presented at the Economics Conference at Essex University May 2012 and at Statistical and Econometric Developements in Survival Analysis (Manheim) June 2012
We use these data and earlier ELSA waves first to document the effect of the crisis on the finances of those aged 50 and over in England, and second, to estimate the effect of wealth shocks on household consumption and individual expectations of the future.
This research, funded by the NAPF with co-funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, looks at the existing levels of saving in defined contribution (DC) pensions on the eve of auto-enrolment.
The paper examines how individuals respond to complex decision-making environments - in particular, whether up-front financial incentives are an effective policy lever to change behaviour.
S. Behncke
This paper investigates the effects of retirement on various health outcomes.
This presentation was given at the launch of the Green Budget 2012.
Browse publications & research
 |
 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.
|
|
|
|
© 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 |
||||||
