Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms
- Part 1 Setting the scene
- Part 2 Benefits for unemployed people
- Part 3 Benefits for disabled people
- Part 4 Benefits for children and families
- Part 5 Benefits for retirement
- Part 6 Towards a welfare class?
- References and further reading
- Index
8 - Understanding trends in unemployment-related benefits
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms
- Part 1 Setting the scene
- Part 2 Benefits for unemployed people
- Part 3 Benefits for disabled people
- Part 4 Benefits for children and families
- Part 5 Benefits for retirement
- Part 6 Towards a welfare class?
- References and further reading
- Index
Summary
Summary
Unemployment caseloads have been driven upwards by de-industrialisation and by the priority given to the control of inflation over full employment as a policy goal.
Social security and labour market polices have sought to contain the growth in caseloads, initially by diverting people out of the labour market or into training in large numbers.
Subsequent tightening of the benefit regulations may have reduced the total claimant count by, perhaps, 350,000. It also shifted the balance of provision radically towards means-testing.
Concern about work incentives has led to the provision of in-work benefits that have created a new category of benefit recipient. In 1999 the number of employed people receiving means-tested benefits fell only a little short of the number receiving unemployment-related benefits.
Most recently, proactive welfare to work policies have been developed to reduce the unemployment caseload by providing assistance, training and work experience. Their long-term effectiveness remains to be established. In the short term they are reducing the claimant count by about 215,000.
Having reviewed the literature, what story can be told about the increased number of claims for unemployment-related benefits?
The growth in the number of claimants of unemployment-related benefits between 1971 and 1999 was the direct result of the de industrialisation of the British economy, a process that changed forever the nature of the labour market, added a new dynamic, and radically restructured the set of employment opportunities available (Figure 8.1). The impact of labour market changes was mediated by labour market and social security policies that themselves evolved in response to the new economic environment, and were guided by a varying mix of ideology and pragmatism. A shared understanding developed between successive governments that the goal of full employment had become unrealistic, and that high inflation was a worse evil than high unemployment. From the late 1980s onwards the common belief emerged that policies needed to accommodate the new needs of the flexible labour market.
Although throughout most of the period total employment continued to grow, jobs were lost in large numbers from the traditional manufacturing sectors and ‘replaced’ by service sector jobs, many of which were low paid and latterly part-time and short-term.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Making of a Welfare Class?Benefit Receipt in Britain, pp. 103 - 106Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2000