Welfare reform on the Web (May 2007): Social security - UK - New Deal

Full employment strategies for cities: 10 guiding principles

I. Turok

Working Brief, issue 182, 2007, p. 10-12

This article identifies a number of guiding principles that will help policy-makers and practitioners to tackle worklessness in urban areas:

• Plans should be managed at city level on the basis of local needs
• There should be a systematic analysis of skills gaps and spatial mismatches between labour demand and supply
• Active employer involvement should be promoted
• A coherent chain of services is needed to enable workless groups to make steady progress into employment
• The system should respond to diverse needs and capacities
• There should be real engagement with people who are out of work
• Services should be provided by a mix of voluntary, for-profit and statutory organisations

Hutton targets 'revolving door' unemployed in overhaul of welfare –to-work schemes

A. Grice

The Independent, Apr. 6th, 2007, p.17

John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary has announced plans for a ‘new New Deal’ that is intended to end a ‘revolving door’ syndrome of unemployed people “going though the motions” on the government’s welfare to work programme, only to return to benefit dependency. The plans to reform the New Deal echo the more radical overhaul of the welfare to work scheme proposed by David Freud in March 2007.

Leak shows Treasury has consigned Blair welfare privatisation to the back burner

P. Wintour

The Guardian Apr. 20th 2007, p.4

A leak from the Treasury reveals that the plans to get single parents and the long term unemployed back into work outlined in David Freud’s report released on March 5 2007, will not be put into action “in the immediate future”. The Freud report suggested introduction of a prototype scheme within a year of its release. The Department of Trade and Industry denies that there is any 'disagreement' with the treasury. However the article suggests that the leak reflects the growing paralysis across government pending the handover of power to Chancellor Gordon Brown in June.

Lone parents: reaching Scandinavian employment rates

K. Bell

Working Brief, issue 182, 2007, p. 21-23

In Sweden, 70% of lone parents are in employment, compared to 57% in the UK. In order to boost the numbers of lone parents entering the labour market, the government needs to improve access to affordable childcare, focus more on helping people to keep their jobs, and provide in-work financial support through the benefits system.

New Deal: new delivery framework needed

Anon

Working Brief, issue 183, 2007, p.18-20

When the New Deal was launched in 1997/98 it enjoyed generous funding, a high profile and early success. The programme has since stagnated as attention has turned to other strategies for reducing worklessness, such as Employment Zones and various experiments with private-sector led delivery. A new framework for delivery is now required, one able to attract the support of all stakeholders.

New Deal’s future: individualisation and choice

G. Tabrizi

Working Brief, issue 182, 2007, p. 26-27

The author suggests that the New Deal could be made more effective in helping unemployed people to find work if it offered personalised services designed to meet the needs of the individual customer as determined by themselves and their adviser. Competition among employment service providers should be encouraged to stimulate innovative approaches. Jobcentre Plus should act as a gateway and should arm customers with information about services available locally, so that they can make an informed choice of provider.

Rights and services for every citizen

D. Simmonds

Working Brief, issue 182, 2007, p. 24-25

This article outlines the services to which every citizen should be entitled when out of work. It is argued that the welfare system should provide the investment that individuals need to increase their employability, and which many cannot afford.