On welfare reform, IDS is ignoring the ERAD project; Miliband must not join him
A little-known program, the Employment Retention and Advancement Demonstration Project, could be the basis of a new phase of welfare reform, argues Stephen Evans.
Stephen Evans
Stephen has worked on and published research on a range of public policy areas, including welfare reform, skills, productivity and housing. He spent five years as a Senior Policy Adviser at HM Treasury, as well as two years working on the independent Leitch Review of Skills and went on to be Chief Economist at the Social Market Foundation.
Cameron’s recycled rhetoric on benefit claimants
Reports the government will tighten up benefit rules to make people do more to look for work recycle previous Labour policy and miss the point, writes Stephen Evans.
Work no longer enough to prevent poverty
In-work poverty is now a bigger challenge than out-of-work poverty, new research finds today. 58% of children living in relative poverty have at least one parent in work.
Coalition’s housing plans will disincentivise aspiration
There is a sound argument to try to support greater mobility in social housing – only five per cent of social tenants moved home over the past year compared to almost a quarter of tenants in the private sector, though it is unclear what an ‘optimal’ level would be. It is also important to emphasise that it is councils and housing associations that will decide the length of tenancies, so the key question is how they will use their new freedoms.
Government plans to build more affordable housing risk falling short
Government projections show there will be more than 250,000 new households every year over the decade to 2020, the result of growth in the number of single person households, increasing life expectancy and net migration. Building 110,000 new homes in 2009 clearly falls far short of this.
Why workfare won’t work
The Government yesterday announced its plans to make benefit claimants work for their benefits. Under this US-style Workfare, people who have been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for 12 months or more will be required to do community work for 30 hours a week for four months. This could be cleaning the streets, picking up litter or painting walls.