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The Working Families Tax Credit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Extract

Gordon Brown's first Budget as Chancellor signalled a new emphasis on microeconomic relationships in economic policymaking. Whereas in the past there has been implicit acknowledgement that macroeconomic policy relies on appropriate responses in individual behaviour, this time the policy focus was explicitly on the structure of the incentives facing employers and employees.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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References

Notes

1 Financial Statement and Budget Report p. 48.

2 See, for example, Ford, J, Kempson, E, and England, J, Into Work? The Impact of Housing Costs and the Benefit System on People's Decision to Work, York Publishing Services, 1995.

3 See White, M. and Forth, J., Pathways through Unemployment: The Effects of a Flexible Labour Market, York Publishing Services, 1998.

4 The Chancellor said in his Budget speech, in introducing the Working Families Tax Credit, ‘For too long we have done too little to help those who work hard to advance up the ladder of opportunity from lower income into middle income jobs and upwards. The cap on aspirations must be lifted…. It is time to reward the efforts of those who want to work their way up.’

5 Statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Treasury Committee, Session 1997-98, Fourth Report, The 1998 Budget, Minutes of Evidence, p. 77.

6 See also Shaw, A, Kellard, K and Walker, R, Moving off Income Support: Bridges and Barriers, Department of Social Security Research Report 53, HMSO, 1996.

7 See Mendelson, M., The WIS that was, York Publishing Services, 1997.

8 Latest figures show take up of Family Credit is 72 per cent of eligible claimants, but 84 per cent of potential receipts. See Department of Social Security Press Release 98/249, 1 October 1998.

9 See Bryson, A, Ford, R and White M, Making Work Pay: Lone Mothers, Employment and Well Being, York Publishing Services, 1997.