welfare to work

Programme introduced in 1998 by UK Labour Party to reduce unemployment, particularly among young people, by encouraging and assisting them to move non-employed claimants of government welfare support into employment. The programme was influenced by earlier programmes of the same name in the USA. It has been driven by a concern to reduce a perceived ‘culture of dependency’ on state financial support among certain groups and by evidence showing that ‘work is generally good for physical and mental well-being’. In January 1998, the chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, announced a ‘national crusade to end unemployment’. Through what it termed ‘New Deal’ programmes, it targeted at first the under-25s, pledging (with success) to move at least 250,000 long-term unemployed young people into employment by 2002 through compulsory training and work experience programmes, and the those over the age of 50, single (lone) parents, and disabled people. The programme had considerable success, and between 1998–2006 the employment rate for working-age adults rose by 2% to 75%, close to its highest ever level, with big improvements among the groups targeted. By 2007, there remained over 3 million people in the UK who had been on benefits for over a year, of whom 2.3 million were on incapacity benefits and 0.6 million were lone parents, receiving income support.

The cost of some £3.5 billion, for the programme between 1998–2001, was partly met by revenue from the ‘windfall tax’ on privatized utilities. The programme was supported by other initiatives, such as tax credits (to make being in work a more financially attractive option than being unemployed), the minimum wage, and child care support. The idea of making people less dependent on the state, and more self-reliant, was criticized by left-wing Labour supporters.