Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Alex Roberts for research assistance on OECD data, and Jane Falkingham, Holly Holder, Richard Humphries, members of the CASE and SPCC advisory committees, participants at the Social Policy Association annual conference 2014, and the rest of the SPCC team for helpful discussion of, and comments on, earlier drafts. Responsibility for the opinions expressed and any errors of fact remains the authors ’ alone