Means testing plays an important role in the UK state pension system. We use a dynamic programming model to consider the effects of a recent policy reform that reduced the marginal tax rates on private income of means tested retirement benefits from 100% to 40%. Our analysis suggests that the...

This paper presents the first set of generational accounts for the United Kingdom. We find that under our baseline scenario, in which pensions are price indexed and health expenditure grows modestly, the imbalance in UK generational policy is small when compared with other leading industrial...

Design of welfare benefits is a tricky business. In this regard, James Meade believed that it is important to avoid excessive distortions to the price of labour. He also recognised that means testing is a useful way of limiting the 'hideously expensive' cost of universal benefits provision; he...

In this note we show how the policy proposals contained in the government's Green Paper on pensions (DSS, 1998) affect the long-term sustainability of the UK's public finances and redistribution between current and future generations. Using the methodology of generational accounting we show that...