Making ONE a success for people disadvantaged in the labour market

Paul Convery

Joint Director

Unemployment Unit & Youthaid, London

ONE - special client groups conference: Sheffield, 17/6/99

Data shows unmet demand for work (LFS)

• 1¾ million lone parents or disabled people are non-employed but want to work
• ½+ million lone parents want to work (55% of the non-employed population):
• 284,000 with children over the age of 5
• 287,000 with pre-school aged children
• 1,157,000 disabled people want to work (27%)
• Of these approximately ½ million might otherwise be claiming JSA
• 1.3 million JSA claimants

JSA Claimants

• higher in/outflow means that ¾ of all ONE participants are likely to be JSA claimants
• ONE must be a step-change improvement to ES services
• offer to all JSA recipients the range of New Deal-style personalised help

Unemployed have complex needs and face multiple barriers to work

• 60% lack basic qualifications (NVQ2)
• 42% are long term unemployed (re-calculated)
• High levels of ethnic minority unemployment
• non-white unemployment rate: 16%
• A fifth of young unemployed have had contact with the criminal justice system
• Significant numbers who are homeless or have insecure housing tenure
• Overwhelmingly an inner-urban population
• Regional imbalances

Problems

• reluctance to take job offers: "usual" occupation, wage levels, travel distance
• risks with re-entry jobs: precarious, stressful
• suspicion about rights and responsibilities
• a decade of SBR
• excessive submission to vacancies
• lack of consistent work history
• basic employability problems
• employers’ reluctance to recruit

Registration & orientation

• not just a "work-first" approach - advice & access to all appropriate benefits and relevant forms
• a positive change in the relationship with benefit recipients
• Personal Advisers must support and empower - not just administer benefit
• access to training, specialist support and intense jobsearch.

Relationships

• claimant-adviser relationship must be established early on
• building trust between the claimant and adviser
• understanding of rules, roles and boundaries

Case management

• PAs must not be "all things to all people"
• PA must be case managers (e.g. GPs are case managers)
• always the contact point & oversee progression
• support team must undertake administration, checks and day-to-day operation of the case
• PA must dedicate time to the claimant and build a relationship of trust
• PA can not provide all of the support and guidance

Superhuman PAs

• Ambitious requirements: multi-function PAs must be well trained, resourced and supported
• be equipped with diagnostic tools
• undertake thorough assessment of needs/ability
• proficiency in application of benefit regulations
• undertake better-off calculations
• knowledge of the local labour market
• access training, programmes, specialist support
• updating knowledge of forthcoming programme developments - ILAs, EZs

Action Plans

• JSA claimants can opt for a ONE Action Plan (in addition to Jobseeker’s Agreement)
• need to enhance early entry by re-casting entitlement rules for adult training or other ES products
• avoid pointless job search for 6 months
• early access to ES products - for those who are judged to be severely disadvantaged

Housing Benefit

• the weak link - current practices pose a serious risk to the success of ONE - and worsening
• erratic and widely diverging service standards
• poor responsiveness undermines confidence in the social security system
• rules allowing date of claim to be actioned from the first point of contact - will help
• onerous change of circumstance rules and reporting requirements between agencies and LA

Housing Benefit

• needs common working practices, IT applications and a client-centred culture
• alternatively, place HB back within the Benefits Agency
• bring HB alongside all other benefits - alignment of appeals and decision making procedures.

Caseloading

• advice & advocacy means simple things: helping fill out forms or making phone calls
• in-work support - build on the approach of Disability Service Teams
• offer support after job-entry to help those who might find it hard to sustain employment
• LTUE are apprehensive about moving into work
• support those with fluctuating incomes and rely on in-work benefits
• no de facto time limits on this in-work support.

Conclusions

• a streamlined, seamless, simpler service
• the best of the BA - identifying needs, ensuring correct calculation and take-up of benefit
• the best of the ES - understanding the labour market and providing job relevant services
• pilots must not be rushed
• learn from New Deal experience
• re-engage ES with the mainstream labour market
• a supportive and not punitive environment
• not exclusively delivered by public agencies

ONE is not enough

• a weakness in the design of benefits and programmes, not simply their administration
• too many restrictions which discourage labour market attachment
• relax earnings disregards
• apply lone parent IS run-on principle to JSA
• extend housing benefits run-on so mortgage payers get an "breathing space"
• avoid "treading water" before eligible for training or ES products

Broader strategy

• imposing minimum labour market standards to make work better paid and more secure
• promoting jobs growth so that good vacancies exist for the marginalised groups
• boosting training - particularly at the bottom end of the labour market - throughout working life
• working with employers to change recruitment practices