welfare reform - the opportunities for job creation and supporting people into employment Tracy Fishwick
Jan 21, 2016
welfare reform - theopportunities for job creation and
supporting people into employment
Tracy Fishwick
Welfare reform…in a nutshell
• Get more people in to work / off benefits…– Carrot VS Stick– Work Programme
• Make work pay– Universal credit
• Save money– Benefit caps, benefit cuts, make it harder to claim,
have more people in work (or off benefits…)
Welfare reform where to begin…?
housing benefits
Council tax
Universal credit
child benefits, tax credits
DLA / PIP reforms
Work programmeSanctions
We could spend a day on the fact that…• The majority of the ‘welfare’ budget is pensions• 45% of households get some form of DWP benefit• 59% of reforms affect people in work – so finding work
is not the whole answer• 85% of disabled people on the Work Programme don't
move in to work• The impact of reform on local government / housing
associations; the link between a home and a job• Is welfare reform making it harder for people to work –
feeling more insecure, losing control, stigma, isolated
But my brief is to be up-beat!
• How opportunities can be created for new jobs
• How people can change their own lives• How we can do things outside the
‘mainstream’?• How we can INNOVATE as part of public
service reform
Innovate: individuals’ employability
Focus on the employer
Innovate: People helping people
DC Central Kitchen - reducing hunger with recycled food, training unemployed adults for culinary careers, serving healthy school meals, and rebuilding urban food systems through social enterprise.
Leverage: housing as a force for job creation
‘Proving Talent’ and Give us a Chance Consortia
enabling job creation, up-skilling local people, no grant money, all through contractor levy
Devo and the like
MyGo - the UK’s first employment centre especially designed for young people ; collaboration between EOS Works Ltd, Tomorrow's People, public sector ‘white labelled’
Opportunities for VCS?•Relationships not transactions •Smaller, local contracts, commissions •Encourage risk – innovate, test, share ideas •Leverage – employers, business, infrastructure, civic leaders, housing •Specialist programmes e.g. part time working •Social action, people helping people, choice, volunteering•Collaboration with employers as well as pan-sector•Invest in evidence base and impact (not SROI)
jobsinnovators.orgnesta.org.uk/blog/four-steps-new-work-programme