Thursday, 7 November 2019

Predicting policy performance: Can the Work and Health Programme work for chronically ill or disabled people?

an article by Stef Benstead (Research Consultant, England) published in Critical Social Policy Volume 39 Issue 4 (November 2019)


Abstract

Many developed countries consider that disability benefit receipt is too high and more disabled people should be in paid work.

Employment programmes designed to achieve this have tended towards less financial support and more requirement to engage in activity. But emphasis on social inclusion through paid work coupled with inadequate benefits and mandated activity can cause distress and worsened health.

It is therefore vital that politicians understand the likely impact of employment programmes before introducing them.

In this article, a new framework based on five ‘Ds’ (diagnosis, destination, development, design and delivery) is used to analyse the UK’s Work and Health Programme.

It is shown that the programme is likely to fail: it includes measures that do not work, and may cause harm, whilst ignoring measures that are known to work. Based on this, it is recommended that this programme be scrapped and the government start listening to disabled people.

In lieu of being able to bring you a link to the full text I have marked this article to read in the British Library next week when I hope to discover which of the measures in the Programme are likely to bring harm and which are ignored even though they work!

As an ex-employee of what is the DWP I think I know the answers from my days as an employment adviser who provided employment advice and only ever "sanctioned" one person who was blatantly working and signing.


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