Government report on welfare reforms – Employers' Forum on Disability comments
5th March 2007
The government has today published a radical review of the welfare system in David Freud's Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work report.
The report makes several recommendations including:
- Greater use of private and voluntary sector resources and expertise so harder-to-help benefit claimants receive more employment
- Greater rewards for organisations that are successful in helping claimants find and stay in work.
- Greater personalisation of employment support, with higher financial incentives for organisations to target resources at the hardest-to-help who need more support before they are ready to return to work.
- Simplification of the benefits system.
Employers' Forum on Disability welcomes any changes to the benefits system that makes it easier for the long-term unemployed, including people with disabilities on incapacity benefit, to find employment.
It is a fact that employment is beneficial to the physical and mental well-being of individuals as well as being good for the economy.
If these changes are to be successful and the Government's target of 80% employment rate is to be achieved, then it is essential that employers are consulted.
The employer needs to be positioned as a customer in the job market. Where services are outsourced to the private and voluntary sectors, we need to be confident that these organisations are aware of the needs of employers as well as the needs of job seekers. That is the key to ensuring that the employer, the job seeker and the intermediary can understand and negotiate the system, in order to help people return to work.
If those on long-term benefits are to be made attractive to employers, it is essential that the needs of employers are built into the welfare to work process at every step.
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Notes to editors
Media enquiries, please contact:
Liz Nightingale, Communications Manager
Employers' Forum on Disability
Email: liz.nightingale@efd.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7403 3020
About Employers' Forum on Disability
Employers' Forum on Disability is the employers' organisation focused on disability as it affects employers and service providers. With over 400 members, EFD represents organisations that employ around 20 per cent of the UK workforce.Since its establishment in 1991, EFD has worked closely with government and other stakeholders, sharing best practice to make it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.