12 December 2008
By Paul Dicken
A drastic overhaul of the welfare state to increase the conditions attached to benefits and personalise services must avoid harsh sanctions and include safeguards for vulnerable people, experts and campaigners have said.
Responding to the launch of the Raising expectations and increasing support white paper, Citizens' Advice and the Institute for Public Policy Research said the move to more personalised welfare-to-work support was positive but that success hinged on having safeguards in place.
But the proposals unveiled by Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell on December 10 drew fire from trade unions and campaigners. The Public and Commercial Services union labelled the measures regressive and said they would lead to a 'private sector monopoly of welfare provision'.
Criticising the government's decision to push ahead with the reforms, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'At a time of rapidly rising unemployment, the government needs to stop talking as if every benefit claimant is a potential scrounger. People losing their jobs need practical help as quickly as possible.'
Barber welcomed proposals for a 'no conditionality' group of claimants, those with very young children, carers and the most disabled people. But he said the Work for Your Benefit scheme, to be piloted for people who have been on Jobseeker's Allowance for two years, would 'unfairly stigmatise unemployed people'.
Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: 'The government direction on welfare reform is seriously flawed. In a recession-hit jobs market, harsh new sanctions are senseless, unfair and a tremendous bureaucratic burden on overstretched Jobcentre Plus staff.'
On the Work for Your Benefit proposals, Green said they undermined the right to a 'fair day's pay for an honest day's work' and would reinforce the idea that work does not pay or that it is acceptable for employers not to pay a fair wage.
In a statement to the Commons, Purnell rejected the argument that the reforms should be put on hold because of the economic climate.
'We should not repeat the mistakes of the recessions of the 80s and 90s, when hundreds of thousands were shuffled on to inactive benefits to keep the unemployment count down, and trapped there without support, abandoning them and scarring their communities.'
The white paper implements in full the reforms recommended by David Freud in 2007 and accepts proposals made by economics professor Paul Gregg in his report, Realising potential, published on December 2. Purnell said virtually everyone claiming benefits should be preparing for, or looking for, work.
Katie Lane, social policy officer at Citizens' Advice, told Public Finance that 'a more personalised approach… rather than a rules-based one, could be a very positive thing if handled correctly.
'Clearly there is a need for safeguards for those who are vulnerable and don't engage, for whatever reasons, so they are not forced into greater poverty.' She said CA had encountered cases where people had been sanctioned inappropriately due to administrative failings and that the 'detail of the implementation' was important.
Creating the impression that disabled people were intentionally reliant on benefits was unhelpful, she warned, when people with disabilities faced real barriers to work and often lacked confidence, as well as skills.
Lane said there was a need to simplify the relationship between tax credits and benefits, so that people had a better understanding of their position. In the mean time, Jobcentre Plus advisers needed to be proactive in providing comprehensive support and explaining the system.
IPPR co-director Carey Oppenheim said: 'Any new welfare reform proposals must ensure there is more investment in affordable childcare and more flexible working for parents so they have the support and confidence to return to work.'
Purnell reassured MPs that parents would not be told to take up work if there was no available child care, but insisted conditionality was crucial. 'Only around 5% of Incapacity Benefit stock claimants voluntarily took up the support that Pathways (to Work) offers, and only around one in four lone parents have taken up the support offered by their New Deal,' he said.
The white paper proposed that from 2010 the 'Gregg model of conditionality and support' be piloted, that Jobcentre Plus personal advisers get more flexibility and that a system of escalating sanctions – where conditions are not met – be introduced.
Agreeing with Gregg's position that the government should not wait until the youngest child is seven before approaching parents, the paper said work would begin developing 'what the regime might look like for parents with three-to-six year-old children'.
Other measures include a 'right to control' for disabled people, giving them power over funding streams through individual budgets, and doubling the budget for the Access to Work scheme, which helps employers meet the extra cost of employing a disabled person.
In 2009, there will also be a consultation on changes to housing benefit that 'will be based on promoting work incentives, easing the transition into work and ensuring the system is fair between families on benefit and those in work'.
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