Key points from the Welfare Reform White Paper

Submitted by Daniel on Thu, 11/12/2008 - 11:18pm

The White Paper is essentially the Green Paper plus the Gregg Review. Some of the more controversial proposals (Work for Your Benefit, mandated support for lone parents with younger children etc.) will start out as pilots or trailblazers. The responses to the consultation are outlined in some detail in the appendices, but the only major changes are the softening of drug-testing proposals and the freeze on transfer of carers from IS. The majority of responses on each proposal appeared to be positive, with the SSAC's response lying at the negative end of the spectrum. The key proposals from the White Paper follow:

Contracting

  • £1.3bn extra JCP / provider funding in next 2 years
  • Pilot 'Invest to save' DEL-AME in Greater Manchester, Norfolk, Lambeth Southwark and Wandsworth
  • Pilot 'accelerator payment' for higher outcome rates suggested by SMF, starting in two areas
  • Right to bid
  • Multi-level local partnership, with gradual development of some Level 3 partnerships which would devolve DWP contracting to local partners, e.g. city regions

Main Benefit Changes (mostly Gregg)

  • Merge IS into ESA and JSA - despite criticism by the SSAC
  • Review Social Fund and Housing Benefit
  • Pilot 3 conditionality groups from 2010 with new ESA claimants and lone parents
  • Implement adviser flexibility and sanction escalation proposals
  • Further discussion on parents with younger children
  • Carers will not be moved off IS until a proper alternative is available

Health and Disabilities

  • Transfer all IB claimants to ESA by 2013
  • Follow Gregg proposal of not mandating application for or acceptance of specific jobs
  • Right to Control trailblazer in various public authority areas
  • Explore integrated mental health services
  • Tackling employer barriers through marketing, partnerships and in-work support

JSA claimants

  • Flexible New Deal!
  • Work for Your Benefit trailblazer
  • Gregg's sanctions regime

Drug users

  • Mandated pre-FND or pre-Pathways programmes for drug users, with identification through Work-Focused Health-Related Assessment for ESA claimants and possibly through criminal justice records for all claimants. Non-attenders may face drug testing

Child poverty

  • Parents on income-related benefits will keep all child maintenance payments

Press Reports

The DWP press release is available here.
Paul Gregg defends his proposals in the Guardian
A useful primer for benefit claimants on BBC News
Financial Times editorial
The Herald comes out with a nuanced argument against the proposals
BBC News
Guardian editorial
Inside Housing
The Economist
And the Daily Mash, which questions the government's analysis of what unemployed people really want, in the most serious terms

The full document is available here.

Comments

Submitted by Daniel on Fri, 12/12/2008 - 12:01pm.

As a quick note, my belief is that a pilot is a test run of a proposal that leads to evaluation before a final decision on roll-out, while a trailblazer is a test run that provides best practice for the wider roll-out but that the roll-out itself is already decided.

Submitted by Daniel on Thu, 19/11/2009 - 3:58pm.

Update 19/11 - The bill has now passed into law. Story here