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Welfare Reform green paper: IES welcomes many of the proposed changes

21 July 2008

The Institute for Employment Studies welcomes many of the proposed reforms included in the Welfare Reform green paper – No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility, but suggests some areas which will need addressing for it to be a success.

Commenting on the green paper, John Atkinson, Associate Director at the Institute for Employment Studies, says:

‘The green paper is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. Improving the skills of people on benefits is a vital step towards getting them back into the labour market, but it is critical that they are being given the right skills – the ones that will really help them. More personalised and individual help for people on benefits is a far better approach than the ‘one size fits all’ method of the current system.

‘Greater use of a mix of private and voluntary providers to help support benefit claimants may offer more effective support, but the incentive to them of keeping some of the benefit savings as profit will need monitoring; this could motivate suppliers to focus on the ‘easy’ cases which will make them more money.

‘The big question is the need to get people into employment in the first place; the economy is in a down turn and getting disadvantaged jobseekers into employment will depend on actively persuading employers to take them on, and supporting them in doing so.’

Further information

For information about the IES research, contact the IES press office, or on 01273 763414