Stress testing the UK welfare system for unemployment

Authors

Francesco Figari, Andrea Salvatori, Holly Sutherland

Publication Date

Jun 2010

Summary

This article examines the resilience (or otherwise) of the United Kingdom social protection system in the face of increasing unemployment. It explores the extent to which benefits protect the household incomes of unemployed people both in relative terms and in comparison with an absolute income threshold. It finds that for the people most likely to become unemployed in the first phase of the current downturn most of any protection they have comes from the earnings of other household, members. In the case of sole-earner households, the benefit system fails to maintain household income above the poverty threshold in most cases and the relative drop in income for this group is very high by international standards.

Volume

Volume: 18 (3): 229-242

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/175982710X530525

Publication type

Journal Article

Research area

Tax and benefit systems

Links

http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1714924~S5 - http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1714924~S5

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*; serial sequence - indexed article

Cid:513874