IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ifs/fistud/v23y2002i4p559-584.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender implications of current social security reforms

Author

Listed:
  • Fran Bennett

Abstract

This paper examines some current reforms to social security benefits / tax credits and changes to employment provisions from a gender perspective. It analyses tensions between the trend towards ‘individualisation’ and growing emphasis on the couple/household as a policy focus. New tax credits change the distribution of resources within many couples. Incentives to work for some second earners should improve; but extending in-work subsidies to childless couples raises questions. Payment of child tax credit to the ‘main carer’ has been welcomed, though the implications of joint ownership of tax credits are unclear, and joint assessment will be extended. Many claimants' partners can now access employment services. However, this is aimed at reducing the number of workless households rather than expanding individuals' opportunities. Joint claims for jobseeker's allowance, and work-focused interviews, involve increased responsibilities for partners but no right of access to individual income. A more consistent critical analysis of reform from a gender perspective is required.

Suggested Citation

  • Fran Bennett, 2002. "Gender implications of current social security reforms," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 23(4), pages 559-584, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:fistud:v:23:y:2002:i:4:p:559-584
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Heinz Handler & Andreas Knabe & Bertrand Koebel & Margit Schratzenstaller-Altzinger & Sven Wehke, 2005. "The Impact of Public Budgets on Overall Productivity Growth," WIFO Working Papers 255, WIFO.
    2. Marilyn Howard & Fran Bennett, 2020. "Payment of Universal Credit for couples in the UK: Challenges for reform from a gender perspective," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(4), pages 75-96, October.
    3. repec:rdg:wpaper:em-dp2011-05 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Alfano, Marco & Arulampalam, Wiji & Kambhampati, Uma, 2011. "Maternal Autonomy and the Education of the Subsequent Generation : Evidence from three contrasting states in India," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 970, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    5. Mike Brewer & Tom Clark, 2002. "The impact on incentives of five years of social security reform in the UK," IFS Working Papers W02/14, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ifs:fistud:v:23:y:2002:i:4:p:559-584. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emma Hyman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifsssuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.