Welfare Reform on the Web (November 1999): Social Security - UK - New Deal

BROWN SETS PRUDENT EXAMPLE FOR ONLINE JOBSEEKERS

R Adams

Financial Times, Sept. 7th 1999, p. 10

Describes new scheme, funded by £18m from the Treasury's capital modernisation fund, intended to help people use the internet to find jobs through the Employment Service. The cash will be used to place terminals in Jobcentres, libraries and colleges, and to develop specialist software.

BROWN WARNS JOBLESS OF BENEFIT CUTS

P Webster

Times, Sept. 7th 1999, p. 10

Reports government plans to toughen sanctions on youngsters who decline offers of jobs, training or voluntary work under the New Deal. Youngsters who decline their first offer under the New Deal scheme will lose two weeks benefit, on the second refusal they will lose four weeks benefit and on the third they will lose 26 weeks benefit.

JOB ROTATION: LINKING LEARNING, BUSINESS GROWTH AND UNEMPLOYMENT?

J Hutchinson

Local Economy, vol. 14, 1999, p. 175-179

Job rotation was introduced as a pilot initiative in Denmark in 1992. It's apparent success has stimulated interest from across Europe, including the UK. Job Rotation involves unemployed people being trained in the skills needed for a specific job in a specific company. They then join the company for an agreed length of time and take over the job of an employed person. The employed person is then able to take time out for training. At the end of the period the employer can decide either to dismiss or retain the unemployed person.

MINISTERS GET TOUGH WITH JOB-SHY YOUTHS

E MacAskill

Guardian, Sept. 6th 1999, p. 7

Reports government plans for the early toughening of sanctions on young people who refuse job offers under the New Deal. Proposed tough measures would mean a loss of benefit for six months rather than four weeks as at present.

RAY OF LIGHT FOR YOUNG JOBLESS

Anon

Labour Research, vol. 88, Aug. 1999, p. 19-20

Reports on the little known foyer movement, which offers young jobless people accommodation, training and help with finding employment.

RELIGION AND THE NEW DEAL

M Harris

Volunteering, no. 51, 1999, p. 14

The Third Way has put pressure on local religions congregations to fill gaps in state provision of social care. Research suggests that these expectations may be too great and that there is not much scope for congregations to take on formal or large scale projects whose continuity can be relied on and which conform with professional norms about such matters as service quality and open access.

TOUGH - LOVE ON THE DOLE

P Bivand

Working brief, no. 107, 1999, p. 12-15

The sanctions regime under both the Jobseekers Allowance and the New Deal for Young People continues to cause hardship to many unemployed young people who frequently have only the haziest idea of what they have been accused. In practice sanctions appear as the sorts of things the powerful do to the socially excluded, and, because of this, they have little effect on job-seeking behaviour. Latest statistics show that nearly 25% of those on an environmental taskforce had been punished, compared to 10% in the voluntary sector, 9% in full time education and 4% of those in a job with an employer. The most socially excluded among the young unemployed appear to be the most likely to suffer sanctions.

TURNING THE TIDE

D Brindle

Guardian, Society, Sept. 1999, p. 6-7

Looks at the progress of a New Deal for Disabled People scheme in Jarrow, designed to get people 'off the sick' and back to work.