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The Government introduced tax relief on childcare vouchers in 2005 to provide greater childcare support for parents. In recent months, the role of childcare vouchers has come under intense scrutiny, and the Government has pledged to reduce the tax relief available to higher rate taxpayers from 2011. But the debate around this issue has been characterized by a lack of evidence on who actually uses childcare vouchers.
How do vouchers fit in with other forms of childcare support that are available? How many people claim them in the UK? Are they typically rich professionals,or are voucher users representative of all socio-economic groups? How much does the policy cost the Government and how much will the recently proposed reforms save? All these questions and more are answered in this important and timely evidence paper. Read more...
Lord David Owen, one of the founders of the SDP, played a key role in the establishment of the Social Market Foundation. In this publication, Lord Owen looks at the social market today. This publication, part of the ongoing celebrations of the SMF at Twenty-One, looks back at the intellectual history of the Social Market Foundation to show how social market ideas can influence policy and politics into the future. Read more...
Arrangements for fiscal policymaking ultimately come down to a set of choices around: who should take fiscal decisions and how? Who should carry out the projections of revenue and spending on which those decisions are based? In the UK, fiscal policymaking has traditionally been highly centralised and discretionary, with all fiscal projections and decisions emanating from HM Treasury. The self-imposed fiscal rules of the 1997 Labour government represented an important experiment in the evolution of fiscal policy institutions. The rules sought to articulate formal standards by which fiscal policymaking could be judged thereby increasing political accountability, even if the rules themselves amounted to nothing more than statements of intent. However, the fiscal crisis that confronted the UK in 2009 showed that even if the government's fiscal framework was an improvement on what went before, it clearly wasn't good enough. Read more...
Why are we are no happier than we once were? Should raising well-being be the aim of government? This book brings together celebrated academics and commentators to look for answers in the work of earlier thinkers, from JS Mill to JK Galbraith.
Richard Reeves, Liam Halligan, Will Hutton, Kevin Hickson and Marina Bianchi examine the arguments of their chosen theorists. Lord Richard Layard, the best known contemporary advocate for government action in this area, concludes by giving his own take on why government should put well-being at the centre of its agenda. Read more...
Over the next decade, an unprecedented funding squeeze and demographic challenges will threaten the existing model of healthcare provision in the UK. Difficult choices will need to be made if we are not to se a return to rationing by waiting list, crumbling infrastructure and a decline in the quality of care – all of which would hit the poor and the sick hardest. This report concludes that the NHS must focus on two activities: securing better value for money, and constraining the inexorable rise in demand for care.
Read more...
SMF’s latest report "Vicious Cycles: sustained employment and welfare reform for the next decade" focuses on the direction of welfare reform for the next decade. Within six months of leaving Jobseeker’s Allowance for work, 40% of claimants are back on benefits. This vicious cycle is costly to both the individuals themselves and to the taxpayer. Rising unemployment will make these problems still more pressing.
The move towards greater local autonomy in the NHS offers new possibilities for services that are specifically targeted at local needs. Locally varied services will be necessary to make the health service more effective and efficient in the years ahead. But there are fears that greater local spending and decision-making power will undermine the national character of the NHS, amid public concern about ‘postcode lotteries’. This study presents the findings of a piece of original research carried out in conjunction with Ipsos MORI examining public views about variation in the NHS. Read more...
This report uses data from two previous recessions and the latest Ernst & Young ITEM Club economic growth
forecasts to estimate what might happen to claimant count unemployment and the number of long-term
unemployed in particular. SMF analysis suggests that the claimant count will peak at over 2.7 million in 2011-12,
while the number of long-term unemployed people (those without work for more than one year) will rise to a peak
of around 1.1 million by 2012. While in recent years long-term unemployment has been a minor part of total
unemployment, this is set to change radically with important implications for how policy should respond. Read more...
This report outlines a fresh approach to national unemployment insurance, in which people can
insure themselves against loss of income due to unemployment. It builds on the conceptual
framework set out in the Social Market Foundation's earlier report Anglo-flexicurity: A safety net
for UK workers.
The Social Market Foundation brought together a range of experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the new cardiovascular disease screening programme. The discussion was led by Professor Roger Boyle, the National Director for Heart Disease. This report includes Professor Boyle's remarks, and a thematic account of the ensuing discussion.
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Click here for a full list of SMF publications issued prior to 2003. If you would like to purchase a publication or cannot find a publication, please contact Claire Newman or 020 7222 7060.