UK benefit changes have pushed people into dead-end, low-paid jobs, says IFS

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said successive waves of welfare changes since the late 1990s had imposed more stringent conditions on those claiming jobless benefits and increased the incentives to find a job.

As a result, the thinktank found those encouraged to enter paid work had tended to remain on low pay, were paying little in tax and were often still entitled to in-work benefits.

The IFS said there had been at least three waves of what was touted as benefit reform over the past 25 years, all of which had encouraged benefit claimants to find work.

According to the institute, a low earner with children in 1997 to 1998 on average had lost 50p in reduced benefits or higher taxes for every £1 earned when they moved into part-time work. Today that figure is 38p.

By contrast, the incentive to move from part to full-time work had been weakened. In 1997 to 1998, that transition implied losing 52p to taxes or withdrawn benefits for every £1 earned, on average. Today it results in losing 58p.

Read more at The Guardian