Dr. Karina Doorley:

We have had a look at the work incentive impact of all these reforms. It is not published work but work in progress. I think this is the next step here. When designing a measure to reduce poverty or child poverty, we will always have a tension between providing a safety net that is adequate and incentivising people to work and to take themselves out of poverty. The policy mix chosen in this regard really depends on which is more important. If the overarching goal here is to reduce child poverty at all costs, then maybe we can live with the work incentive effects. These policies do damage work incentives, but there are ways in which you could try to mitigate those impacts, such as changing taper rates or allowing people to keep some of their benefits for a certain time after they go back to work, in the same way as is done for things like medical cards. There is never a perfect solution to something like this, so it is really all about the trade-offs.