Not-so-distant cousins: Family benefits in the United Kingdom and Australia

Recent trends in tax transfers have seen an increasing interdependence of tax and welfare systems in determining access to and the quantum of benefits, particularly in relation to in-work benefits, such as family support. Both the United Kingdom and Australia have adopted family support mechanisms that appear to operate in a similar way, but closer examination of the detail reflects the differences in underlying policy in the two jurisdictions. This article examines, first, the institutional and policy basis for the design of the family tax transfer system in each jurisdiction and, second, the issues raised by the interdependence of tax and social security concepts in the design of in-work benefits.