[1] Latest Jobseeker’s Allowance Claimant Count figures are available via the Office of National Statistics’ Labour Market Statistics; Early estimates for Working Age Inactive Benefit Client Groups, and Benefit Caseload National Statistics are available via the Department for Work and Pensions’ Tabulation Tool.

[2] Department for Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (the figure is for people claiming Income Support, incapacity benefits and Jobseeker’s Allowance).

[3] Examples of the concerns people have about managing financially when moving into a job can be found in Woodland S, Mandy W and Miller M, 2003, Easing the transition into work (Part 2: client survey), Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 186.

[4] Department for Work and Pensions expenditure data.

[5] HM Revenue & Customs, 2010, Child and Working Tax Credits Error and Fraud Statistics 2008-09: www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtcredits-error0809.pdf

[6] Department for Work and Pensions, Fraud and Error in the Benefit System: October 2008 to September 2009.

[7] HM Revenue & Customs, 2010, Child and Working Tax Credits Error and Fraud Statistics 2008-09:
www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtcredits-error0809.pdf

[8] Cabinet Office, 2010, State of the Nation report: Poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency in the UK,
HM Government ref 401172/0510.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Browne J and Paull G, 2010, Parents’ work entry, progression and retention and child poverty, Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No. 626.

[11] Ibid.

[12] HM Revenue & Customs, April 2010, Child and Working Tax Credits Statistics, Office of National Statistics.

[13] Eurostat, 2008 data.

[14] Blanden J and Gibbons S, 2006, The persistence of poverty across generations: A view from two British cohorts, Report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Bristol: Policy Press.

[15] Cabinet Office, 2010, State of the Nation report: Poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency in the UK, HM Government ref 401172/0510.

[16] Department for Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.

[17] This does not apply to Employment and Support Allowance claimants who can in some circumstances keep £93 a week in earnings and all of their benefit, including (since April 2010) Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.

[18] Adam, A. Brewer, M. and Shephard, A., 2006, Financial Work Incentives in Britain: Comparisons over time and between Family Types, IFS WP 06/20.

[19] Citizens Advice, October 2008, Citizens Advice Evidence Briefing: Barriers to work: Lone parents and the challenges of working.

[20] Participation Tax Rate – the proportion of gross earnings lost in tax and withdrawn benefits.

[21] This figure was calculated using the Department’s Policy Simulation Model, which is based on the 2007/08 Family Resources Survey and includes the tax and benefit policies announced in the June 2010 Budget. Those modelled as moving into work are assumed to do so at 25 hours at the minimum wage.

[22] Marginal Deduction Rate – the proportion of an additional £1 in income lost in increased income tax and NI contributions and in reduced benefit and Tax Credit payments.

[23] HM Treasury, June 2010, Budget 2010. The table shows people working over 16 hours a week and receiving income-related benefits or Tax Credits.

[24] The changes in the June 2010 Budget will increase the maximum Marginal Deduction Rate to 95.95 per cent.

[25] Gloster, R et al, 2010, Lone Parent Obligations: Early findings of implementation as well as experiences of the Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance regimes. Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No. 645.

[26] Barbour A, 2008, Work Incentives in the benefits system: Increasing levels of Earnings Disregard, Community links Evidence No. 12; SPARK Research, 2004, A Review of the DWP Benefit Fraud Sanctions Regime, Department for Work and Pensions In-house report.

[27] Martin, D, 2009, Benefit simplification: How, and why, it must be done, Centre for Policy Studies.

[28] Community Links, Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, CPAG, 2007, Interact: benefits, Tax Credits and moving into work; (2010) Royston, S, 2007, Benefit simplification and the customer, Department for Work and Pensions paper www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/simplification-and-the-customer.pdf; Sainsbury R and Weston K, 2010, Exploratory qualitative research on the ‘Single Working Age Benefit’.

[29] Department for Work and Pensions Customer Insight evidence, 2010, Single Working Age Benefit findings, www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/customer-insight-single-working-age-benefit.pdf

[30] Disability Alliance (2003), Out of Sight – Race Inequality in the benefit system.

[31] Martin, D, 2009, Benefit Simplification: How, and why, it must be done, Centre for Policy Studies.

[32] Gloster, R et al, 2010, Lone Parent Obligations: Early findings of implementation as well as experiences of the Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance regimes. Department for Work and Pensions Research Report 645.

[33] Department for Work and Pensions Customer Insight evidence, 2010, Well enough to work findings, www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/customer-insight-well-enough-to-work.pdf.

[34] Martin D, 2009, Benefit Simplification: How and why it must be done, Centre for Policy Studies; Centre for Social Justice, 2009, Dynamic Benefits: Towards welfare that works; Brewer M, Saez E and Shephard A, 2008, Means Testing and Tax Rates on earnings, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

[35] Sainsbury R and Stanley K, 2007, One for all: active welfare and the single working age benefit, Institute for Public Policy Research.

[36] J. Mirrlees, S. Adam, T. Besley, R. Blundell, S. Bond, R. Chote, M. Gammie, P. Johnson, G. Myles and J. Poterba (eds), April 2010, Dimensions of Tax Design: the Mirrlees Review, OUP.

[37] Taylor C, Denham M, Baron R and Allum A, Welfare Reform in Tough Fiscal Times: Creating a Better and Cheaper Benefit System The TaxPayers’ Alliance, July 2010.

[38] Hall, S, 2009, Spending priorities in the benefits system: Deliberative research with the public, Department for Work and Pensions Research Report 559.

[39] Royston, S, 2007, Benefit simplification and the customer, Department for Work and Pensions paper. www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/simpification-and-the-customer.pdf