Volunteering and employability: exploring the link for incapacity benefits recipients

Abstract

The current Labour government has been keen to stress the role of volunteering and active citizenship as a means of escaping social exclusion. At the same time the government emphasises unemployment as a root cause of social exclusion, and encourages people to volunteer as a route into paid work. This article discusses the evidence for links between volunteering and employability for incapacity benefits recipients. There is mixed evidence as to whether voluntary work acts as a direct route to paid work. For some people, volunteering can increase personal assets to offer employers, such as confidence, social skills and experience gained in a work environment. However, cultural stereotypes of people who do voluntary work may limit identification of such opportunities. Disabled people may face a number of other barriers to taking part. The authors argue that focusing too much on the role of volunteering as a route to paid work for incapacity benefits recipients fails to recognise the potential value of volunteering in enhancing quality of life and human capital.