In 1991 PSI carried out for the Department of Social Security a survey of 2300 of Britain’s low income families with dependent children. Low income was defined as being out of work, or being in work with an income below the point at which the family’s entitlement to Family Credit ran out, plus 25 per cent. This captured the lowest quarter of the income range among couples and nearly all the lone parents. The few better-off lone parents were added to make up a nationally representative sample of lone parents.
This survey provided the first comprehensive study of the way in which families with children experience the benefit system and how it impacts on their incentives to get and keep paid work (Marsh and McKay 1993 and McKay and Marsh 1995). The findings tended to strengthen a case for policies aimed to ‘make work pay’ even though for some families, particularly the lowest-paid couples, cash incentives and gains in living standards were small.
The 1991 survey also provided the basis for a series of follow-up studies, both re-interviewing the 1991 families and carrying out replication studies with new samples:
The new studies of lone parents added to understanding of the role of child support payments, of how families re-form, returns to work and the role of poor health as a barrier to work. The studies of families leaving Family credit showed how in-work benefits helped unemployed lone parents enter and remain in work while helping employed couples remain in work and avoid unemployment.
Most of these data are now available from the Essex Data Archive and full technical details are available from the Archive’s website.