 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
Richard Disney and Edward Whitehouse
At first sight, the technicalities of social securtiy benefit indexation are a somewhat abstruse topic, suitable only for the journals and handbooks of tax and finance practitioners.
Paul Johnson and Graham Stark
Paul Johnson and Steven Webb
Vanessa Fry and Graham Stark
For most of its lifetime there has been broad consensus on the role of the basic state retirement pension within the benefit system. Most pensioners were poor.
Vanessa Fry, Stephen Smith and Stuart White
Andrew W Dilnot and Richard Disney
The Social Security Act 1986 allowed a wider range of pension schemes to contract out of the state earnings-related pension scheme (SERPS).
Browse publications & research
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 Started: 01 February 2012
Started: 01 January 2012
Started: 11 April 2011
Started: 01 April 2010
Started: 01 November 2009
   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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