Welfare Reform on the Web ( January 2005): Social Security - UK - New Deal

JOBS FOR LONE PARENTS: WHY IS LONDON LAGGING BEHIND?

P. Bivand and M. Ognjenovic

Working Brief, issue 156 2004, p.16-18

Jobcentre Plus and the New Deal for Lone Parents are less effective in getting lone parents in London into work than elsewhere in the country. This may be due to relatively low demand for unskilled workers in the capital and to underfunding of Jobcentre Plus.

A STEPPING-STONE TO EMPLOYMENT: AN EVALUATION OF THE PERMITTED WORK RULES, WAVE 2

S. Dewson, S. Davis and G. Loukas

Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies, 2004

The Permitted Work Rules allow Incapacity Benefit recipients to earn up to £78.00 a week for a year and continue to receive benefit. Results of a telephone survey show that for a sizable minority of clients the Permitted Work Rules have acted as a stepping stone to employment and have facilitated a shift away from benefits. Clients with musculo-skeletal difficulties and mental health conditions are most likely to have moved into sustained employment. Many respondents have discovered that their health conditions were not the barriers to work they originally thought. Although many clients feared worsening health as a result of working, these fears proved mainly unfounded.

WELFARE TO WORK HANDBOOK. 2ND ED.

W. Somerville and C. Brace (eds)

London: Inclusion, 2004

Offers comprehensive coverage of the government's welfare to work agenda. Covers benefit entitlements, financial support, and training provision as well as all the different New Deal employment programmes. Details who is eligible for what and explains the thinking behind the welfare to work agenda.