ABSTRACT
Make work pay has become one of the key objectives of social protection in the European Union. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has devoted a whole issue of its Economic Studies to make work paypolicies. Australia and Canada have moved away from tax credits and other support directed only to families with an earner, towards the provision of a common family benefit or tax benefit regardless of work status. These may provide a securer and more stable system of child support, with a better impact on labour market participation. The use of tax credits for low-income households has been much influenced by the remarkable expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit in the United States, which has been described as 'the policy equivalent of penicillin'. In the United Kingdom, this problem is now being tackled for families on low incomes through the introduction of the Working Families Tax Credit.
