Winners and losers from five decades of UK tax-benefit reforms

Nicolas Hérault and Justin van de Ven present the first quantitative evaluations of tax and transfer treatment enjoyed by families with children and age pensioners, relative to the wider population. They find that households with at least one member above state pension age have benefitted substantially from the maturation of the state pension system, and that families with children and low incomes have also enjoyed substantial improvements in treatment, reflecting targeted reforms to welfare policy.