The aim of the coalition is a), to reduce the claimant count and b), to assist more people into work. The last quarter has seen a surprising but uncertain growth in the economy of 1.1%. The increase in this quarters employment figures is encouraging, but the impact of the deficit reduction plan as will be outlined in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) will result in significant job losses in the public sector. The impact of these job losses are likely to trickle down resulting in people who are furthest from the job market being displaced and moved further down the pecking order as competition for entry level jobs increase.
Added to this will be the reassessed IB claimants who are moved on to ESA and those deemed fit for work who will be moved onto JSA. The JSA count is set to expand hugely.
As a suggestion, maybe over the next 15 months the focus should be on an active programme of assisting large numbers of claimants into work. So, for example,
· The Accelerator Funding Model should not be implemented on commencement of the Work Programme. If an accelerator model is to be used, it should be phased in over the economic cycle of 3 quarters,
· In order to encourage investment into the sector the focus should be on getting quick wins – see our piece on the myriad of measurable outcomes.
