Professor Jane Millar:

On take-up, the benefits with the best take-up are the universal benefits such as child benefit, so “Do not means test if you want good take-up” might be a short answer to that.

On the incentives, it has always struck me that far too much attention is paid to the financial incentives as if that is all that matters, and so as long as someone gets more money in work than out of work, they have that incentive. Actually, as Professor Patrick was saying, it is about your life more generally, how you fit work in with your childcare and your other caring responsibilities, where you live and all sorts of things. A much more holistic approach to thinking about that is needed. When we think about people with ill health or disability, that is tremendously important because it is their circumstances that often make it difficult for them to be in constant employment.

That takes me to the role of employers. It is increasingly recognised that we need to take account of how employers approach supporting people and how they make it possible for people to take up jobs and stay in work. There is interesting work going on in the UK, where Dr. Katy Jones is working with employers to identify and address these issues. Employers have a role to play in what it is they have on offer to people to enable them to work.