Welfare Reforms and the Crowding-In of Parental Coresidence in Great Britain

Vincent Jerald Ramos, University of Southampton
Ann Berrington, University of Southampton
Jan Einhoff , Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

When public welfare support is de facto rolled back, does parental support “crowd in”? The Universal Credit (UC) reform in Great Britain, rolled out in phases between 2013 and 2018, combined six legacy welfare programs into a single system aimed at reducing administrative complexity. This reform included rules that changed benefit income and strengthened job search requirements—changes that disproportionately affected single young adults. Amidst economic uncertainty, parental coresidence may serve as a buffer. Testing this crowding-in hypothesis, we use longitudinal data from Understanding Society and the reform’s full-service roll-out schedule across local authority districts. Employing a staggered difference-in-differences design, we preliminarily find that the UC reform increased the likelihood of parental coresidence among program-eligible young adults. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that this effect is strongest among those with the highest predicted risk of unemployment. These findings highlight the role of intergenerational support in buffering young adults against uncertainties in the labor market alongside retrenchment in welfare provision.

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 Presented in Session 21. Housing and Living Arrangements