Family Credit and ist successor the WFTC, have been central to the British welfare reform debate in reacent years. This debate in informed by tax benefit modelling, yet accurate modelling of Family Credit is fraught with potential problems. The main model input data are found to under-sample...

The principal of horizontal equity can be interpreted as requiring that households with the same pre-transfer incomes and the same consumption needs should receive the same post-transfer incomes. We argue the generosity of government financial support to families with children should be analysed...

In this paper we document significantly steeper declines in nondurable expenditures in the UK compared to the US, in spite of income paths being similar. We explore several possible causes, including different employment paths, housing ownership and expenses, levels and paths of health status,...