Welfare integration, labour supply and take-up

正如2019冠状病毒病危机所强调的那样，福利制度对于保护家庭和个人免受剥夺、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，英国的福利制度由几种福利组成，例如失业、住房和儿童福利。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综合支付系统中——通用信用（UC）。一旦推行，四分之一的适龄工作家庭将在任何时候收到这笔钱。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福利政策设计的未来至关重要。非综合福利制度有潜在的弊端。首先，家庭可能不了解他们有权获得的所有福利，或者觉得很难或耗时。那些在他们的环境发生变化后（例如，在孩子出生后）有权获得不同福利的人，必须通过新的程序才能获得它。这可能会使该体系更难帮助那些原本打算帮助的人。其次，多个并行项目意味着，如果一个家庭增加收入，它可能会同时失去几项福利。这就造成了所谓的“贫困陷阱”，即收入的增加对整体家庭收入的提高作用不大，反而阻碍了就业或额外工作。这些都是重要的可能性，但关于福利一体化的实际利弊，我们所知甚少。这是我们研究要解决的问题。目的：我们将研究多重福利制度如何影响家庭申请的福利和他们的工作量，以及不同类型家庭的不同。了解申请福利和工作之间的关系很重要，因为家庭通常不申请他们有权获得的福利，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工作年龄人口。这对于理解福利一体化的影响至关重要。我们将研究拥有多个项目在多大程度上导致家庭在情况发生变化（例如孩子出生）后不申请新获得的福利，以及之前和预期的未来申请如何影响这一点。之前收到的福利会影响一个家庭对该制度的理解程度，他们在申请时会感受到的耻辱，以及他们开始新的申请所需的努力。对他们能继续享受这项福利多长时间的预期也可能影响他们是否认为“值得”提出新的申请。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，而无需重新申请。我们的工作将帮助我们了解以前和预期将来收到的福利如何影响一个家庭今天是否申请。我们将运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、家庭收入和政府财政。我们还将能够利用我们的研究来检查UC设计的变化如何影响这些结果。这是一个至关重要的政策领域，我们的工作将有助于政策制定者了解其影响或考虑变化。更一般地说，我们的研究结果将突出福利一体化的优点和缺点，这对考虑类似改革的其他国家的政策制定者以及其他类型的一体化（如“基本收入”提议）具有重要意义。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，我们和其他研究人员将能够在未来使用它来分析其他拟议的税收和福利政策如何影响劳动力市场、收入和政府财政。

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.