New Welfare Reforms

The welfare reform bill, expected to be published in January, will ensure that people on incapacity benefit would be expected to attend job interviews or risk losing payments with those people unemployed for a year expected to do four weeks' full-time activity, while private firms would be paid to get people back to work.

The reforms will require unemployed people to prove they are taking steps to get back to work or face a cut in benefits. Private and voluntary organisations would invest money to spend on helping people into work and would be paid out of any benefit savings

Amanda McIntyre, director of ERSA (the Employment Related Services Association) which represents the independent providers of welfare-to-work services, says: "A key reason for engaging independent providers of welfare-to-work services is their ability to offer more personalised and accessible support to those further from the labour market. But too often, they and Jobcentre Plus advisers have been held back by standard welfare programme rules and the inability to adapt national initiatives to address local circumstances.”

Susan Scott-Parker, chief executive at the Employers’ Forum on Disability broadly welcomes the government’s plans saying “Disabled jobseekers have a responsibility to take steps towards getting a job, but training and support must be provided through disability competent services,” says Scott-Parker. “For example, back-to-work training needs to be delivered using IT systems that are accessible for people with visual impairments...Employers also need to understand the business case for hiring employees with disabilities. Around 900,000 disabled people in the want to work but have limited access to the labour market.”