Title: Income distribution within families and the reform of social security
Abstract: Abstract This article discusses the policy implications of a study of the distribution of income within families receiving social security. Analysis of the perceptions and use of different sources of household income revealed gendered patterns. It confirmed that benefits for children are more likely to be spent on the children if paid to the mother, raising questions about the impact of the proposal normally to pay the working family tax credit through the pay-packet. There was little support for the individualized payment of benefit, reflecting fears that it could be divisive and that men might treat their share as personal spending money, leaving women to meet the family's needs with less money. Nevertheless, there were also suggestions that, in highly inegalitarian families, benefit-splitting could provide an important way of ensuring some money gets directly into women's hands. The overall conclusion is that policy-makers need to tread with care in this area of social security law and policy.
Publication Year: 1999
Publication Date: 1999-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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