UK benefit changes have pushed people into dead-end, low-paid jobs, says IFS

The IFS found those encouraged to enter work tended to remain on low pay, were paying little in tax and were often still entitled to in-work benefits. Photograph: Mint Images/Getty Images/Mint Images RF

Tougher benefit rules have boosted employment in the UK in the past 25 years but only at the expense of trapping workers in dead-end jobs, according to a leading thinktank.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said successive waves of welfare changes since the late 1990s had imposed more stringent conditions on those claiming jobless benefits and increased the incentives to find a job.