White Paper promises next "radical steps" for welfare reform
DWP has announced that long-term JSA claimants will be "guaranteed a job or work placement" as part of the Government’s next stage of welfare reform. There will be revisions to the Work Capability Assessment and Incapacity Benefit will be phased out by 2014.
The guarantee for the long term JSA unemployed will apply to those unable to find work for more than two years. This will help people who lost their jobs during the recession to avoid "a life on benefits" as the economy recovers. Claimants will be required to take up the offer if they cannot find other work. Jobs will be provided through extending the Future Jobs Fund “as well as private sector and voluntary sector internships and work placements.”
Earlier this week, the Government tabled regulations to abolish Incapacity Benefit by April 2014. From October 2010 all such claimants will be reassessed with the Work Capability Assessment. The goal is to assess everyone by April 2014 and this will require assessing over 10,000 long term claimants each week. The White Paper also announces:
• the “accuracy” of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) will be revised to give “appropriate consideration of people’s ability to adapt to their disability, as well as ensuring better recognition of mental health and fluctuating conditions such as ME and multiple sclerosis”
• extra support for people who are newly assessed as fit for work but may have spent a number of years on an incapacity benefit
• guaranteeing a place on Work Choice, for those on Employment and Support Allowance who want to work but do not find work after two years.
The measures announced in the White Paper are estimated will deliver over £1.5bn in savings over the next four years – and these have been included in the Treasury budget plans to save £11bn.
The White Paper can be downloaded from http://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/welfare-ref...
Comments
Where does this leave Stage 5 FND then (the bit where those unsuccessful in getting work during the black box stage were to be carted off to chain gangs and punished on community schemes)? Or is this Stage 5 and all other options have now been dropped?
Raven
If you mean the 'Work for Your Benefit' pilots, they are going ahead. There was a Lords debate on the regulations on Tuesday.
See Theyworkforyou http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2010-03-30a.1321.2&s=%22Flexible...
In four districts they will randomly assign either to Work for Your Benefit or the Jobseeker's Guarantee, and then work out which one works best.
So they're just another version of what's already been announced then? In one version, after you've been unemployed for two years, you get guaranteed a work placement. In the other, once you have been unemployed for a year, you manditarily go on to FND, and if you haven't got a job after another year - ie you've been unemployed for two years - you get a work placement.
Spot the difference!