The impact of a time-limited, targeted in-work benefit in the medium-term: An evaluation of In Work Credit

Conventional in-work benefits (IWB) are means-tested, open to all workers with sufficiently low income, and usually paid without a time-limit. This paper evaluates an IWB with an alternative design that was aimed at lone parents in the UK and piloted in one third of the country, and that featured a time-limit, and was paid conditional on previous receipt of welfare. It increased flows off welfare and into work, and these positive effects did not diminish when recipients reached the 12 month time-limit for receiving the supplement. Job retention of recipients was good, but this cannot be attributed to the IWB.