Local worklessness policy analysis case studies

A report of research carried out by Warwick Institute for Employment Research on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP RR 844)

Summary

There is an increasing emphasis on localisation and the delivery of services through local and multi agency partnerships; this report investigates the issues around undertaking policy analysis at the local level.

The study is based on a case study approach providing insights into experience and practice of local partnerships and bodies in three areas: Greater Manchester, Lewisham and Cornwall.

This research provides local case study insights into:

• the extent to which analysis is undertaken at the local level to assess local worklessness interventions;
• whether and how local policy analysis is used to inform current and future interventions;
• the range of ‘good practice’ in local worklessness analysis;
• barriers to conducting analysis;
• the nature, scope and efficacy of existing arrangements to share local analysis; and
• local partners’ appetite for a ‘framework’ for the analysis of local worklessness interventions and for dissemination of findings.

Full text (PDF 66pp)

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Imagining a Just and Sustainable Society: A Critique of Alternative Economic Models in the Global Justice Movement

an article by Mi Park (Dalhousie University, Canada) published in Critical Sociology Volume 39 Number 1 (January 2013)

Abstract

This article examines diverse visions of an alternative society articulated by individuals and groups in the Global Justice Movement (GJM).

It finds that many dissenters of globalisation tend to converge on the idea that localisation, economic descaling and political devolution would foster social conditions favourable to a just and sustainable society. Critiquing this idea, this article identifies a number of foreseeable problems associated with a descaled, localised economy with a decentralised political structure.

With a notable silence on the issue of the movement of people, local-centred economic models may provide an ecological ground for anti-immigration and trade protectionism of the rich countries.

Small-scale farming and small scale eco-technology are far too inadequate to meet the food and energy needs of the populace in huge urban areas.

Given the fast growing rate of urbanisation globally, localisers must address the issue of how to go about restructuring the economy without infringing on people’s occupational aspirations and their preference for certain modes of living (rural or urban).

In short, the presumed positive correlation between a descaled local economy and social justice is challenged throughout the article.

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Council Tax Benefit - Forecasts and assumptions

This research report from the DWP has no reference number that I can find (and believe me I have looked, and looked)

Executive summary

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) currently subsidises local authority spend on Council Tax Benefit (CTB) and provides forecasts of future expenditure to the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) on a biannual basis.

These estimates inform the Budget and Autumn Statements. In April 2013, Council Tax Benefit will be abolished and help for individuals to pay their Council Tax will be localised.

This was announced as part of the 2010 Spending Review, which also committed to reduce UK government expenditure on the benefit by ten percent. From this point, the DWP will no longer be responsible for forecasting expenditure on the replacement schemes individual local authorities choose to operate, and this has prompted a number of queries on forecasting methodology from Communities and Local Government (CLG), the devolved administrations, and individual Local Authorities, amongst others.

In agreement with the OBR, a decision was taken to make detailed information on the forecasts, trends and assumptions available publicly, in the interests of transparency.

This publication provides a background to Council Tax Benefit in its current form, how it is currently forecast within the DWP, and details the underlying assumptions reviewed when the forecasts are updated.

It also provides a commentary on past and future expenditure trends which underpin the forecasts, including by country.

Full text (PDF 23pp)

Hazel’s comment:
One of the few things I have actually read (if I read everything through thoroughly I’d never get anything posted) and I still don’t understand it beyond the “local government is going to be responsible for this in future”.

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