Mike Brewer

Welfare reform: devil in the detail, by Mike Brewer

30 September 2010 | Mike Brewer

In July, the Department of Work and Pensions published a consultation paper, 21st Century Welfare, which sought views on its ideas for fundamental reforms to the benefits and tax credits system. We wrote about the document when it was published, and today we are publishing our formal response . The Government has also set an ambitious timetable for these reforms: it would like to bring forward legislation early in 2011, which would presumably require a White Paper later this year, after October’s Spending Review. Read more...

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Welfare reform comes at a cost, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies

16 September 2009 | Mike Brewer

The Centre for Social Justice have published a report in association with Oliver Wyman on how to reform the benefits and tax credits system, with the aim of reducing the number of families where no one is in work. The proposals are wide-ranging, and cover both how benefits and tax credits should vary as people move into work and increase their earnings, and the overall structure of the benefits system. I provided advice on how to model the impact of the reforms, but was not involved in producing the report’s policy recommendations; some of the Centre for Social Justice’s recommendations are, though, similar in spirit to those I and colleagues made last year in a study commissioned by the Mirrlees Review of the British tax system. Read more...

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