The “invisibility” of poverty in Japanese society has long been one of the reasons for...
Welfare-to-work
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28/01/2014
MPs call for jobcentre reforms
Jobcentres need to make improvements in the way they assess claimants' potential barriers to employment at an early stage of the claim process, says a new report published by the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee.
Category: Reports -
20/01/2014
Labour calls for benefits to be linked to skills
Unemployed people who lack basic skills should be denied access to benefits unless they take up training, according to the opposition Labour party. The proposal was made by Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Rachel Reeves, in her first major speech since taking up her new post.
Under the plans, all new claimants of jobseeker's allowance would have to sit a basic skills test within six weeks. Those who were deemed to lack basic skills in English, maths and computing would be required to take up part-time training or lose their benefits. Labour estimates this would affect around 25,000 people a month.
Reeves said: 'We all know that basic skills are essential in today's jobs market, but the shocking levels of English and maths among too many jobseekers are holding them back from getting work. This traps too many jobseekers in a vicious cycle between low-paid work and benefits'.
Category: News stories -
30/09/2013
‘Help to Work’ scheme for long-term unemployed
Long-term unemployed people deemed to be capable of working will in future be 'asked' to do so as a condition for continuing to receive benefits, under an announcement made by the coalition at the start of the Conservative Party conference.
Category: Reports -
11/09/2013
Tax and benefit reforms ‘strengthen work incentives’
The coalition government's tax and benefit reforms will have the overall effect of strengthening people's incentives to work, according to a new paper from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The paper looks at reforms implemented, or due to be implemented, over the period 2010–2015.
Category: Reports -
03/09/2013
‘Work for the dole’ scheme proposed
New universal credit claimants would be forced to undertake work-related activity after a certain time, under proposals in a think-tank report aimed at tackling so-called 'welfare dependency'.
The TaxPayers' Alliance describes itself as an 'independent grassroots campaign' for lower taxes.Category: Reports -
25/04/2013
Adequate benefits needed for ‘active inclusion’
Independent experts have sounded a series of warnings over the UK's progress on the active inclusion of people most excluded from the labour market. Adequate benefits, they say, are crucial to any active inclusion strategy.
The experts reviewed the coalition government's actions in 2012 on commitments given to the European Commission: their findings were initially summarised in a 'synthesis' report in January 2013, and have now been released in full.Category: Reports
