Welfare integration, labour supply and take-up

福利一体化、劳动力供给和吸收

• 批准号: ES/V003704/1
• 负责人: Monica Costa Dias
• 金额: $ 33.03万
• 依托单位: Institute for Fiscal Studies
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV003704%2F1
• 关键词: Welfare; integration; labour; supply; take

ContextBenefits systems are crucial in protecting families and individuals from deprivation, supporting those with health conditions, and reducing inequality, as the covid-19 crisis underlines. As in many other countries, the UK benefits system has been comprised of several benefits - e.g. for unemployment, housing, and children. This system is in the midst of a radical overhaul where many of these are brought together into a single integrated payment - Universal Credit (UC). When rolled out this will be received by a quarter of working-age households at any one time. Other countries are considering similar moves. Understanding the impacts of welfare integration is thus crucial to the future of welfare policy design.There are potential drawbacks of non-integrated welfare systems. First, families might not understand all the benefits that they are entitled to, or find it difficult or time-consuming to claim them all. Those that become entitled to a different benefit after their circumstances change - e.g., after a child is born - have to jump through new hoops to get it. This could make it harder for the system to help those it is intended to. Second, multiple parallel programmes mean that if a family increases its earnings, it can lose several benefits at once. This creates so-called poverty traps where increased earnings do little to raise household incomes overall, discouraging employment or extra work.These are important possibilities, yet very little concrete is known about the actual pros and cons of welfare integration. This is the issue our research will tackle. AimsWe will examine how a system of multiple benefits affects what families claim and the amount they work, and how this varies for different types of families. Understanding the relationship between claiming benefits and work is important because families often do not claim the benefits they are entitled to, with take-up rates as low as 55%. Our analysis will cover the whole tax and benefit system and the bulk of the working-age population. This is crucial for understanding the impacts of welfare integration.We will study the extent to which having multiple programmes causes families to not claim newly entitled benefits after circumstances change (e.g. a child being born), and how prior and expected future claiming affects this. Prior receipt of a benefit can affect how well a family understands the system, the stigma they would perceive if they claimed, and the effort it would take them to start a new claim. Expectations about how long they will remain entitled to that benefit are also likely to affect whether they think it is 'worth' making a new claim. This is important when thinking about welfare integration, since integration means that when circumstances change benefit entitlements also change automatically, without the need for a new claim. Our work will help us to understand how previous and expected future receipt of a benefit affects whether or not a family claims today.We will apply all these results to understand how UC affects employment, hours worked, benefit take-up, families' incomes, and government finances. We will also be able to use our research to examine how changes to the design of UC could affect these outcomes.Applications and benefitsUC is a vital policy area, and our work will be of use for policymakers seeking to understand its effects or consider changes. More generally, our results will highlight the advantages and drawbacks of welfare integration, which is relevant for policymakers in other countries contemplating similar reforms, and for other kinds of integration such as 'basic income' proposals.Moreover, because our analysis will cover the whole of the benefit system and a large share of the working-age population, we and other researchers will be able to use it in the future to analyse how other proposed tax and benefit policies might affect the labour market, incomes, and government finances.

正如 covid-19 危机所强调的那样，背景福利制度对于保护家庭和个人免遭剥夺、支持有健康问题的人以及减少不平等至关重要。与许多其他国家一样，英国的福利制度由多种福利组成 - 例如失业、住房和儿童。该系统正处于彻底改革之中，其中许多系统被整合到一个单一的集成支付中——通用信用（UC）。一旦推出，四分之一的工作年龄家庭将随时收到该服务。其他国家也在考虑类似的举措。因此，了解福利一体化的影响对于未来的福利政策设计至关重要。非一体化福利制度存在潜在的缺点。首先，家庭可能不了解他们有权享受的所有福利，或者发现领取所有福利很困难或耗时。那些在情况发生变化后有权获得不同福利的人（例如，在孩子出生后）必须跨越新的障碍才能获得它。这可能会让系统更难帮助那些它想要帮助的人。其次，多个并行计划意味着，如果一个家庭的收入增加，它可能会同时失去多项福利。这就造成了所谓的贫困陷阱，即收入的增加对提高家庭整体收入几乎没有作用，从而阻碍了就业或额外工作。这些都是重要的可能性，但人们对福利一体化的实际利弊知之甚少。这是我们的研究将要解决的问题。目标我们将研究多重福利制度如何影响家庭的索赔金额和工作量，以及不同类型家庭的差异。了解领取福利与工作之间的关系非常重要，因为家庭往往不会领取他们应得的福利，领取率低至 55%。我们的分析将涵盖整个税收和福利体系以及大部分劳动年龄人口。这对于理解福利整合的影响至关重要。我们将研究拥有多个计划会在多大程度上导致家庭在情况发生变化（例如孩子出生）后无法申领新有权的福利，以及之前和预期的未来申领对此有何影响。之前收到的福利可能会影响家庭对制度的理解程度、他们在领取福利时会感受到的耻辱，以及他们开始新福利时需要付出的努力。对他们将有权享受该福利多长时间的预期也可能会影响他们是否认为“值得”提出新的索赔。在考虑福利整合时，这一点很重要，因为整合意味着当情况发生变化时，福利权利也会自动改变，而不需要提出新的要求。我们的工作将帮助我们了解以前和预期未来收到的福利如何影响家庭今天是否领取福利。我们将应用所有这些结果来了解 UC 如何影响就业、工作时间、福利领取、家庭收入和政府财务。我们还将能够利用我们的研究来检验 UC 设计的变化如何影响这些结果。应用和好处 UC 是一个重要的政策领域，我们的工作将为寻求了解其影响或考虑变革的政策制定者有所帮助。更一般地说，我们的结果将突出福利一体化的优点和缺点，这对于考虑类似改革的其他国家的政策制定者以及“基本收入”提案等其他类型的一体化具有相关性。此外，由于我们的分析将涵盖整个福利体系和大部分工作年龄人口，因此我们和其他研究人员将来将能够使用它来分析其他拟议的税收和福利政策可能如何影响劳动力 市场、收入和政府财政。

项目成果

Intensive margin labour supply and the dynamic effects of in-work transfers

密集的边际劳动力供给与在职转移的动态效应

• DOI: 10.1920/wp.ifs.2023.0323
• 作者: Goll D

Do work search requirements work? Evidence from a UK reform targeting single parents

求职要求有效吗？

• DOI: 10.1920/wp.ifs.2023.0223
• 作者: Alexandru Codreanu M

Reforms, roll-outs and freezes in the tax and benefit system

税收和福利制度的改革、推出和冻结

• DOI: 10.1920/re.ifs.2022.0218
• 作者: Waters T