4 Strength through work

I thought this was a good example of the arguments about single parents in employment http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/feb/23/workandcareers.familyfinance. Note the calculation at the end, which shows how essential the in-work benefits are to make work pay, even at this marginal level. This cost is important when calculating the cost of single parents working to the rest of society. I often find that liberal advocates of tax credits are shy about the costs of these schemes. I calculate that this person’s untaxed income without benefits would be £88.32 gross, way below the level of benefits income; it has to be toped-up with negative income tax and housing benefit, to make the worker marginally better off. I’m not against the project; I just don’t think we can hide this truth as it has major consequences for the welfare budget as a whole.