The Child Trust Fund, tax-incentivised universal children's savings accounts launched in 2002, was arguably the most innovative social policy implemented under the post-1997 Labour governments. The objectives of the Child Trust Fund range widely across savings policy, financial engagement and asset-based welfare, and are notable for seeking to change the behaviour of both children and their parents. However, the Child Trust Fund today is at a crossroads: it is not achieving its aims as well as was hoped, and it is no longer affordable in its current state. Read more...
SMF’s latest report "Vicious Cycles: sustained employment and welfare reform for the next decade" focuses on the direction of welfare reform for the next decade. Within six months of leaving Jobseeker’s Allowance for work, 40% of claimants are back on benefits. This vicious cycle is costly to both the individuals themselves and to the taxpayer. Rising unemployment will make these problems still more pressing.
This report uses data from two previous recessions and the latest Ernst & Young ITEM Club economic growth
forecasts to estimate what might happen to claimant count unemployment and the number of long-term
unemployed in particular. SMF analysis suggests that the claimant count will peak at over 2.7 million in 2011-12,
while the number of long-term unemployed people (those without work for more than one year) will rise to a peak
of around 1.1 million by 2012. While in recent years long-term unemployment has been a minor part of total
unemployment, this is set to change radically with important implications for how policy should respond. Read more...
With a long way to go to meet the government target of one million fewer claimants on Incapacity Benefit by 2015, there is an increasing recognition that efforts must focus not only on returning people from welfare to work, but also on preventing the slide from employment towards benefits in the first place. Read more...
In this report, the authors examine how likely the implementation of FND will be to succeed in four key areas: cost-effective commissioning; helping all jobseekers; preventing ‘revolving door’ employment; and stimulating innovation in welfare-to-work provision. In each area, FND in practice promises not to be as effective as it could or should be. The authors argue that this is the result of a failure to design the programme in a way that aligns incentives between contractors and government. The authors describe practical approaches to resolve the tensions between procurer and contractor. In doing so, they suggest the blueprint for a 21st century a welfare-to-work programme that offers the step-change in performance that the government seeks. Read more...
To achieve full employment over the next decade requires a fresh approach to welfare to work. This paper recommends that workless people be given a virtual budget – a personal employment account – instead of being enrolled in the current New Deal. This account, based on a similar initiative being piloted in seven states in the US, would be used far more flexibly for a far wider range of support. Read more...
Published just before the long awaited Pensions Commission report on the future of pensions, this publication explores how pension compulsion might have been best implemented in order to meet the challenges facing the UK pension system. Read more...
This report is a product of the 2005 SMF Internal Commission examining the UK's system of Incapacity Benefit. Read more...
This paper sets out the 2005 SMF working group on pension compulsion's initial discussions and preliminary agendas. Read more...
Evidence suggest that experiencing some form of employment or work experience is the most effective way of getting low skilled young people into permanent employment. This report analyses the effectiveness of work experience, training and employment schemes provided by the private sector for a particularly vulnerable group of low skilled youth: young offenders and young people at risk of offending. Read more...
In this publication, Peter Lilley argues that compulsion is the only real solution to Britain’s pension’s crisis. Read more...