Previous IFS work has confirmed the intuition that, for a given level of expenditure, increasing the per-child element of the child tax credit will have a larger direct impact on poverty than increasing the family element or increasing child benefit. In a recent note, we built on this by estimating the number of children that would be taken out of poverty by five hypothetical policy reforms: increases in the per-child element of the child tax credit of £3/week; increasing all adult allowances in income support by £2.50 a week; introducing a new premium into the child tax credit which is paid to families with three or more children. The premium would be worth £845 a year to all families with three or more children with joint annual incomes below £50,000; increasing the working tax credit for all families with children by £11.75 a week
