Welfare impacts study

Changes to the welfare system are not helping people to find work, a report published tomorrow will suggest.

The report tracks the impacts of welfare reform over time through in-depth interviews with a cross-section of people and was compiled by the Employment Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Stirling.

The testimonies of the people involved show that:

• The current welfare system is not helping people find work. Those who had moved into employment found work independently and not due to Jobcentre Plus services;
• There was limited support on offer to help recipients of out of work benefits move into work. Those participating in the Work Programme did not report that it was helpful;
• Most people wanted to work but issues such as childcare, illness and training made it difficult for them to do so;
• The current welfare system also does not appear to meet its aim of ‘make work pay’. People who had moved into work felt only slightly better off and continued to find it difficult to make ends meet;
• Benefit freezes or restricted increases have meant falling real-term incomes, with many study participants finding it hard to meet basic needs.

Deputy First Minister Nicola sturgeon said:

“The people in this study show that the changes to the current system are not achieving what they set out to do.

“The system is not helping people without work find jobs and it is not making people with work better off in any real sense.

“Penalties in the benefit system, and changes that make it harder to claim, do not help people. The people involved also made clear that the support currently on offer is to help them find jobs – such as the Work Programme - is limited and not helpful.

“The only way to increase employment is to address the barriers stopping people from working – that means better childcare, more training and help with any health problems.”