Help to Work was a government
workfare scheme in the United Kingdom for individuals who had not found work after two years on the
Work Programme
The Work Programme (WP) was a UK government welfare-to-work programme introduced in Great Britain in June 2011. It was the flagship welfare-to-work scheme of the 2010–2015 UK coalition government. Under the Work Programme the task of getting t ...
. Help to Work was the overall name for Community Work Placements and other intensified "activation" measures, and was launched at the start of 2014, but it was announced in November 2015, that the
DWP was "not renewing" it.
Referrals to Community Work Placements ended in March 2016, with contracts ending by October. All other referrals ended in March 2017.
Individuals who refused to participate in the scheme faced sanctions usually involving full withdrawal of benefits.
Pilot
A study of a pilot of the "Help to Work" scheme carried out by the
National Institute of Economic and Social Research
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), established in 1938, is Britain's oldest independent economic research institute. The institute is a London-based independent UK registered charity that carries out academic researc ...
reached the following conclusion:
The good news: Help to Work reduced benefit receipt and increased employment among participants. The not so good news (but no surprise to those of us who know the literature): not by very much, and overall outcomes were still pretty bad.
Criticism
Richard Godwin writing in the ''Evening Standard'' criticised the scheme as "slavery by another name".
See also
*
Help to Buy
Help to Buy is the name of a government programme in the United Kingdom that aims to help first time buyers, and those looking to move home, purchase residential property. It was announced in Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's 2013 budg ...
References
Workfare in the United Kingdom
Unemployment in the United Kingdom
{{UK-poli-stub