UK Welfare Reforms Research Articles

Do regional labour market conditions affect transitions into employment from health-related inactivity? Multilevel analysis of longitudinal UK Labour Force Survey data

BackgroundLong-term worklessness (unemployment or economic inactivity) is associated with adverse health outcomes and inequalities. Recent UK welfare reforms, alongside other return-to-work policies, have aimed to increase employment rates for people who have been out of the labour market because of sickness and disability. However, sickness benefit claimant counts vary substantially by geographical area and are highest in the post-industrial regions with the weakest economies. The aim of this study was to investigate whether local labour market conditions affect transitions from health-related inactivity into employment and compare them with transitions from unemployment to work. MethodsLongitudinal Labour Force Survey datasets were used to follow working age individuals resident in Great Britain over five consecutive quarters. Datasets from 1999–2013 were pooled (quarter 1 health-related inactivity group n=29 130, unemployed group n=14 873). Multilevel logistic regression models (region at level 3, year-within-region at level 2) were constructed with employment at quarter 5 (Q5) as the main outcome measure. Annual male regional employment rates were used as a proxy for local labour market conditions. FindingsTransitions into employment for the health-related inactivity group were rare (1057/29 130 [3·6%] at Q5) compared with the unemployed group (6255/14 873 [42·1%]). Regional variance was significant at baseline (p=0·03), and adding local employment rates as a fixed effect eliminated all observed area-level variability. A 1% increase in local employment rates was associated with an unadjusted odds ratio (OR) of transition to employment for the health-related inactivity group of 1·08 (95% CI 1·05–1·10) and for the unemployed group 1·08 (1·06–1·10). Adjustment for sex, age, education, and long-term health status had little effect (health-related inactivity group adjusted OR 1·07, 1·05–1·10). InterpretationLocal labour market conditions fully account for regional differences in transition rates from health-related inactivity into employment. Higher regional employment rates are associated with increased rates of return to employment, and this association is similar to that for unemployed groups; however, overall rates of transition were low compared with unemployed groups. One limitation of our study is loss to follow-up. Local labour market improvement could potentially increase return-to-work rates for the sick and disabled. Public health advocacy and collaborative action with policy makers in local and national government is needed to address this issue. FundingEC receives funding from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates (SPHSU1) as part of the Evaluating the Health Effects of Social Interventions programme at the Medical Research Council/Chief Scientist Office (MRC/CSO) Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK. AHL receives core funding from the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12017/5) and the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates (SPHSU2) as part of the Measuring Health programme at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow. FP receives core funding from the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12017/7) as part of the Social Patterning of Health over the Lifecourse Programme at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.

Public health implications of UK welfare reform: qualitative research in a North East England community

The United Kingdom is experiencing a radical programme of welfare reform which aims to save around £18 billion from the annual welfare bill. As a result the income of households claiming benefit will reduce significantly, by an average of £31 (€38) a week (£1,615 (€1,965) a year) with potential negative consequences for physical and mental wellbeing among those reliant on state benefits. The North East of England has been significantly affected by welfare reform as …

The local and regional impact of the UK's welfare reforms

The Coalition government that came to power in the UK in 2010 is implementing unprecedented welfare reforms. These have the effect of substantially reducing payments to a wide range of low-income and out-of-work households. This article examines the local and regional impact of the reforms, showing how national reforms have a sharply different impact in different places. Taken as a whole, the welfare reforms affect derived areas most and are widening the gap in prosperity between the best and worst local economies across the UK.

Debate: Radical reform or path dependency in action? The UK's welfare reforms

This article shows that, far from representing a radical departure from the preceding Labour administration's agenda, the coalition's welfare reforms merely represent a case of path dependency in a...

Welfare Reform, Jobcentre Plus and the Street-Level Bureaucracy: Towards Inconsistent and Discriminatory Welfare for Severely Disadvantaged Groups?

A defining feature of UK welfare reform has been concerted moves towards greater conditionality and sanctioning which has stimulated much academic debate. However, few policy articles have sought to examine how welfare reforms are actually implemented. Lipsky (1980) has shown that the intentions of policy makers may be frustrated by the behaviour of public service workers operating in a ‘corrupted world of service’. This article draws upon the findings of the evaluation of the Jobseekers Mandatory Activity to discuss how key welfare reforms are likely to be implemented. It argues that that discretion remains a significant feature of front-line practice with potentially profound implications for severely disadvantaged groups.

The Role of Non‐profit Organizations in the Mixed Economy of Welfare‐to‐Work in the UK and Australia

AbstractThis article charts the development of welfare‐to‐work policies and compares and contrasts the traditions of delivery in the UK and Australia. We find that in the UK, employment services and social security benefit administration have been dominated by the central state, traditionally affording a key role to civil servants as direct delivery agents. However, in federal Australia, mixed economies of welfare‐to‐work operate in the different states, there is a far greater role for social services and non‐profit organizations are firmly established as key providers of frontline employment services. Since the late 1990s, UK welfare reforms have been gradually following the Australian lead in contracting non‐state actors as delivery agents. As this trend seems set to continue and intensify, we examine the Australian experience in order to reflect on the role of non‐profits in policy reform.

Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements In writing this introduction we have drawn on ideas expressed during a roundtable discussion held at a seminar hosted at Edinburgh Napier University in March 2009, attended by most of the contributors to this special issue. We would also like to thank Jacqueline Davidson, Steve Fothergill, Anne Green and David Webster for comments on an earlier version of this introduction. Notes 1. Speech by David Cameron MP on Conservatives' Green Paper on welfare reform, 8 January 2008 at www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2008/01/David_Cameron_A_real_plan_for_welfare_reform.aspx

Quasi-marketising access to social housing in Britain: assessing the distributional impacts

Since 2000 growing numbers of British social landlords have emulated their Dutch counterparts by introducing a ‘quasi-market’ approach to letting vacant properties. Known in Britain as choice-based lettings (CBL), the new approach aspires to treat people seeking social housing as consumers and to encourage consumerist behaviour. This is consistent with a wider drive for UK welfare state reforms emphasizing ‘customer choice’. As in other policy areas (e.g., education and health) the widening of service-user choice in this area has given rise to concerns that a more market-like system could be to the detriment of already disadvantaged groups. In the CBL case, particular concerns have been expressed about the possible consequences for formerly homeless households. It has also been suggested that, in shifting responsibility for decisions on matching properties and people from landlords to house-seekers themselves, CBL might exacerbate ethnic segregation. Drawing on a government-commissioned study focusing on early CBL schemes in England and Scotland, this paper examines these hypotheses in the light of empirical evidence. The analysis finds no indication that formerly homeless households tend to be disadvantaged under CBL in terms of area popularity or property quality. And, in general, the system appears to produce a more spatially dispersed—rather than a more concentrated—pattern of lettings to ethnic minority households.

Time, social justice and UK welfare reform

While analyses of time have never strayed too far away from those of social justice, and vice versa, this article's premise is that they have so far failed to converge as directly and coherently as they might. The aim of this article is to facilitate a greater degree of convergence by working within a framework of liberal equality and establishing similarities in the work of the two theorists who have gone furthest in bringing the various debates together. These are Robert Goodin and André Gorz, and the article explores the respective strengths and weaknesses of their ideas. A liberal theory of socio-temporal justice is derived from their work and is then used to critique some recent developments in UK welfare reform.