How governments should direct money to families with children is a constant topic of political debate. But the complexity of the ever-changing tax and benefits system makes its overall impact on families anything but transparent, and trends in British government support for children hard to distinguish. This report, published in association with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, provides a comprehensive, quantitative analysis of trends in child-contingent support from the mid 1970s to the introduction of the new tax credits, and relates this to changes in tax and benefit policy, the characteristics of households with children, and the costs of raising children in Britain. Drawing on a large-scale survey spanning the last 28 years, the report analyzes entitlements to child-contingent taxes and benefits for thousands of households with children. It examines how support has varied across households and over time; separates the impact of policy from socio-economic changes; and compares gover

Introduction; Methods and definitions: what is child-contingent support and how do we model it?; Financial support for children in the UK since 1975; The changing structure of support for children since 1975; The costs of children; Comparing the costs and benefits of children; Conclusion.