New Deal for Welfare: Empowering People to Work

This is part of the UK Government’s ongoing programme of welfare reform and focuses on reducing dependency on benefits and supporting more people into employment, in particular lone parents, those in receipt of Incapacity Benefit and older people. The overall aims of the reform are to:

• reduce the number of people on incapacity benefit by 1 million
• support 300 000 more lone parents into work
• increase the number of older workers by 1 million. 

The proposals are for wide ranging changes to the ways in which benefits are paid and how support is offered. The key themes of the reforms are:

• To enable more people to stay in work when they become sick or disabled by improving workplace health support and provision.
• Ensuring that people do not become ‘stuck’ on benefit and supporting people to leave benefit to take up employment.
• Improving the range and quality of support available to those on benefit and ensuring that support continues after someone has started employment where appropriate.
• Developing a flexible and coherent service of support provision that meets the needs of individuals.
• Re-enforcing importance of individual responsibility in working towards employment.
• Working with employers to encourage them to engage with the target groups.
• Reforming and simplifying the system of Housing Benefit to ensure that it supports the wider programme of welfare reform. 

Partnership working is seen as key to the successful delivery of the reforms and improving services locally. There is an expectation that all relevant partners will engage with this at a local level, including local authorities, employers, learning and skills councils, regional development agencies, health, Jobcentre Plus and the private and voluntary sectors. The partners should be working together to identify the local priorities and to develop and deliver a coherent and flexible service that meets local needs.