Gordon Brown has done it again if research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is to be believed. State financial support for families with children has more than doubled in real terms since 1975, and child tax credits and benefits now add up to £22bn a year, following slow growth over the last 24 years and a 52 per cent surge since 1999.
Almost all the post-1999 increase, says the report, is a direct result of policy changes, including increased means testing and the introduction of a new child tax credit.
Researchers from the Institute of Fiscal Studies applied a computer simulation of the tax and benefit system to household survey data, and took into account average inflation rates and key demographic trends to come up with the impact in real terms.
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