Social Firms UK

Social Firms UK and Social Firms Scotland have presented to the government, a position statement on welfare reform, the David Freud paper and the Social Firm sector. The statement requests that social enterprise be one of the solutions the government adopts to help those furthest from the labour market into work.

This document shows the response by Sally Reynolds of Social Firms UK to the high profile seminar on Welfare Reform held in London on 26 March 2007.

Following the publication of its Green Paper on Welfare Reform “In Work, Better Off” DWP has been drawing up a strategy on how it will commission employment support programmes. It favours moving towards a position where it has large contracts with a small number of prime contractors. They in turn will subcontract with smaller or more specialist providers. In its response, Social Firms UK highlights the role that Social Firms play in providing employment and employment support for people furthest from the open labour market and flags up the need to support job creation as well as employment support. We include a proposal aimed at helping the Social Firm sector to grow and highlight ways in which the needs of Social Firms should be taken into account in any future contracting arrangements.

DWP is proposing to streamline the Job Introduction Scheme, Work Preparation and WORKSTEP into a single flexible programme. The concepts that are shaping the proposals are:

In its consultation on Welfare to Work Reform the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) proposes that, apart from severely disabled people, or those with full-time caring responsibilities, the government expects everyone receiving benefits to take active steps towards employment and to take up suitable employment. They are introducing skills assessments and will make it compulsory for people receiving Job Seekers Allowance to take up training if the assessment shows that they need it. (They are consulting on whether training should be compulsory for people receiving Invalidity Benefit). They propose that people on JSA for more than 2 years will be required to take up unpaid work in the community. With the introduction of the Employment Support Allowance, people who are assessed as being in the Work Related Activity Group will be required to participate in Work Focussed Interviews and will receive personalised support to gain work.

This consultation set out the Government’s plans increase the numbers of people getting work. By 2013, people will either be on Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), or the Employment Support Allowance (ESA). Emphasis will be on what people can do and, where relevant, this will be tested by a new medical assessment. People with severe disabilities will get more cash under ESA.  Others who qualify for the benefit will be placed in a “work” category and will receive personalised back-to-work support to help them prepare for work and overcome any barriers they face. It will be made clear to this group that ESA is a temporary situation to help them get fit to return to work.  The proposals also include streamlining the benefit system, moving lone parents with children under seven on to JSA and offering more support to prepare them for work.