Welfare consortium calls for radical new points system

The chair of a consortium campaigning for welfare reform is proposing a radical ‘points’ system, based on level of disadvantage, for unemployed people.

In an exclusive think piece for Social Enterprise, CREATE Consortium chair Jess Steele argues that a points system would help community enterprises partner with the big private contractors to play a bigger role in helping get people into work.

She argues that this will also help with the introduction of a ‘community allowance’, which would allow social enterprises to pay for some work without affecting people’s unemployment entitlement.

Steele writes: ‘The move towards large-scale contractors in “the welfare industry” is hurtling towards its logical conclusion… If everyone is treated the same and there are no rewards for the steps towards employability, the temptation to cherry-pick the “easy” ones is irresistible.

But if the provider had grant-funded or contracted with a development trust from the start they could be said to ‘own’ the points of the more difficult people to place who had received the help of the trust, Steele suggests.

To read the full article click here