Zusammenfassung:
This paper examines the labour supply disincentives of the Income Support system among single mothers with no qualifications in the UK. It uses a regression discontinuity approach that exploits the age-eligibility rule establishing automatic withdrawal of Income Support for single mothers whose youngest child turns 16. At this cut-off age, barely ineligible mothers experience an 8.5% increase in their probability of working and an increase in hours of work of about 3. This is consistent with pronounced labour supply disincentives of the income support policy.