Employment Policy

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We fear robots at work, but robotic jobs for humans are awful too. It’s not just the crummy jobs. Even in workplaces where judgment used to count, people are treated like machines. Increasingly, in the modern workplace, the dividing line is: trust versus the lack of it; autonomy versus micro-management; being treated like a human being or programmed like a machine. The wider social consequences of all this are worrying. For work isn’t just work, a set of daily tasks to grind through. It’s a form of human relationship, something we do with and for each other that helps reinforce ideas of mutual responsibility and belonging in wider society – or it does, so long as people feel their efforts and experience are appreciated, that their employer actually cares about how they feel, that they are not just another cog in the machine. Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian, Mar.18.2018.


Automatic enrolment in workplace pensions

  • Policy, DWP

Child maintenance reform

  • Policy, DWP

Employment

Gig Economy

©Mike Konopacki
  • Mar.11.2018: Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain Journalist James Bloodworth's story of being "embedded" for six months as a zero-hours worker is vital reading for all. In this exceptional book, James Bloodworth sets out to work among “that now permanent class of people who live a fearful and tumultuous existence characterised by an almost total subservience to the whims of their employers” Nick Cohen, The Guardian.
  • Feb.07.2018: 700,000 gig workers paid below national minimum wage. Govt research reveals low levels of pay as labour market reforms draw criticism. A quarter of people working in Britain’s fast-growing gig economy are being paid below the national minimum wage of £7.50 per hour. About 2.8mn people worked in the gig economy between Aug.2016–Aug.2017. The business secretary Greg Clark admitted on Wednesday that the death of a diabetic gig courier for DPD, Don Lane, was a "terrible tragedy" and faced claims that none of the long-awaited labour market reforms the govt announced would have saved him. Chairman of the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee Frank Field wants the minimum wage extended “to the small army of workers who are exposed to poverty pay because they are forced into forms of self-employment that are unrecognisable to most people”. Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said: "They needed to do something bold today but it appears they are simply papering over these bleak realities with rhetoric. Launching 4 consultations, merely considering proposals and tweaking the law here and there is not good enough". Employment lawyers called the govt’s response to the review by Matthew Taylor of modern working practices "underwhelming" and "feeble", amid widespread fears that significant reform could be slow in coming. Robert Booth, The Guardian.

Technology

  • Aug.21.2018: AI will cost jobs on grand scale, says Bank of England chief economist. The rise of artificial intelligence will have a “dark” fallout even more disruptive than previous industrial revolutions, the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane has predicted. Andy Haldane said that the “fourth industrial revolution” would be on a much greater scale than those that played out in the 18th to 20th centuries and would lead to widespread job losses and societal changes. Automation has already displaced millions of low-skilled jobs. Experts predict that artificial intelligence (AI) will displace millions more in the next two decades. Mr Haldane told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “The first three industrial revolutions have been about largely machines replacing humans doing principally manual tasks, whereas the fourth will be different. All of a sudden it will be the machine replacing humans doing thinking things.” Tabitha Goldstaub, chairwoman of the Artificial Intelligence Council, agreed. Sceptics believe that a form of Universal Basic Income may have to be introduced. Mark Bridge, The Times.
  • Mar.05.2018: Will 2018 be the year of the Neo-Luddite? According to Jamie Bartlett writing in The Guardian, in our rush to embrace all things technological, we are failing to account for the human costs and the consequences of the development of automation, artificial intelligence and everything being networked. Jamie asks if 2018 will be the year when of the Luddite comes to prominence again? "The downsides of technology’s inexorable march are now becoming clear – and automation will only increase the anxiety. We should expect the growing interest in off-grid lifestyles to be accompanied by direct action and even anti-tech riots". RobWatsonMedia.net, Rob Watson

Working Poverty

Workfare in the UK

"Workfare" refers to govt policies whereby individuals must undertake work in return for their benefit payments or risk losing them.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workfare_in_the_United_Kingdom
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Birthday_Honours (search for "JHP Group"
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_organisations_who_have_participated_in_workfare_programmes (note JHP Group wrt Learndirect)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott_Workfare
  • 1970s: the Heath govt's Manpower Services Commission
    • 1978: Youth Opportunities Programme, the Callaghan govt
    • 1983: Youth Training Scheme, 1st Thatcher govt
  • 1986: Restart - 2nd Thatcher govt, introduced compulsory interviews for unemployed claimants
  • 1991: Employment Action, superseded Restart
  • 1993: Community Action, 1st Major govt
  • 1996: Project Work - replaced Community Action
  • 1998: New Deal - New Labour replaced Project Work. Funded by a one-off £5 billion windfall tax on privatised utility companies. The stated purpose was to reduce unemployment by providing training, subsidised employment and voluntary work to the unemployed. Devised mainly by LSE Professor Baron Layard (then Richard Layard), based on similar workfare models in Sweden. Initially targeted 10-24 year old unemployed, subsequently targeted other groups.
  • Oct.2009: Flexible New Deal - renaming of New Deal
  • 2009: The Future Jobs Fund introduced; cut by the Coalition govt in Jan.2011.[1]
  • May.2011: Mandatory Work Activity - individuals had to work for their benefits or risk being 'sanctioned' and losing them.
  • Jun.2011: replaced by the Coalition govt's Work Programme. The task of getting the long-term unemployed into work was outsourced to a range of public, private, and third sector organisations.
  • Apr.2014: Help to Work - the Conservatives announced a new scheme.[2]
    • Community Work Placements: expected claimants to work for up to 30 hours a week for 26 weeks in return for JSA (Job Seekers Allowance).
    • Work Choice: a voluntary programme aimed at helping disabled people with more complex issues to find work and stay in a job.
  • Nov.2015: Work Programme and Work Choice replaced with "Work and Health Programme" for the longer-term unemployed and those with health conditions (ie. they were merged).
    • Help to Work (incl. Community Work Placements) scrapped; Mandatory Work Activity scrapped.

Community Work Placements

Mandatory Work Activity

Automation

  • Feb.14.2018: Automation can set us free – but if mismanaged it will leave our democracy in peril. According to the think-tank IPPR, a third of the UK’s annual pay and 44% of jobs are under threat from automation. This translates to £290 billion and 13.7 million jobs, with low paid jobs most at risk. The impact of automation will also be unevenly spread geographically. The Centre for Cities estimates that workers in the north of England and the Midlands are most at risk, while northern towns including Sunderland, Stoke and Mansfield could see nearly 30% of jobs automated in the next 12 years. Another report by PwC suggests that 30% of jobs could be under threat from artificial intelligence within 15 years. Unskilled jobs may be lost to robots, while skilled jobs could be lost to AI and algorithms. Some locations and sectors will fare better than others. In Shadow chancellor John McDonnell's constituency of Hayes and Harlington – which contains Heathrow Airport – 40% of jobs are estimated to be at risk. Automation could set us free - but if mass unemployment is mismanaged through a lack of planning by govt and a lack of awareness among the public, it could add fuel to populist movements. It is not difficult to imagine a future govt indulging the temptation to deregulate the labour market in a desperate and futile bid to keep humans competitive with robots. Chancellor Philip Hammond got into trouble on the Andrew Marr Show when he dismissed the threat of driverless vehicles to the 1 million people who make their living from driving. A Future Advocacy report showed that only 7% of the general public are worried about their jobs being displaced by robotics and AI, despite increasing evidence of the gathering storm. openDemocracy, Luke Prescott

European funds

Health and safety reform

  • Policy, DWP

Household energy

Older people

  • Policy, DWP

Poverty and social justice

State Pension age

  • Policy, DWP

State Pension simplification

  • Policy, DWP

Welfare reform

Articles

  • Feb.12.2018: DWP spent £100m on disability benefit appeals in two years. Data for two-year period shows something is ‘seriously wrong’, says former Tory minister Ros Altmann. Tens of millions of pounds a year are also spent by the Ministry of Justice on the appeals, about two-thirds of which were won by claimants in the past 12 months. Since Oct.2015, 87,500 PIP claimants had their decision changed at mandatory reconsideration, while 91,587 others won their appeals at tribunal. In the first half of 2017-18, 66% of 42,741 PIP appeals went in the claimant’s favour. The figures for ESA since Oct.2015 show 47,000 people had decisions revised at mandatory reconsideration and 82,219 appeals went in the claimant’s favour. Frank Field, the committee chairman, has written to Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, to ask why MPs were not given the information. The Guardian, Press Association
  • Jan.25.2018: DWP refuses to name charities set to earn millions from new disability jobs scheme. The Department for Work and Pensions has refused to name the charities and other organisations being paid millions of pounds to help deliver its new disability employment programme across England and Wales. All six of the new Work and Health Programme contracts went “live” last week, and DWP announced the main contractors in October. But it has refused to say which smaller organisations are helping to deliver the programme as sub-contractors. DWP’s reluctance to do so is likely to be linked to criticism that has been aimed at disability charities that were set to play a significant role in the new programme. Disabled activists have raised concerns that winning such contracts could mean that these and other charities would be unwilling to criticise the government on social security reform. The main WHP contractors are Remploy (in Wales); the charity Shaw Trust in central England and the home counties; Reed In Partnership in north-east England; Ingeus in the north-west; and Pluss in the south of England. Remploy, formerly owned by the government, is now mostly controlled by the US company Maximus. Maximus has a disturbing track record of discrimination, incompetence and fraud in the US, while Remploy slashed the pay of service-users who were taking part in inspections of health and care facilities, after taking on three Care Quality Commission contracts, and has since been heavily criticised for its performance in delivering those contracts. Disability News Service, John Pring

Improving Lives

Universal Credit

PIP

Disability Living Allowance

Associated Groups

References

  1. ^ Back-to-work scheme scrapped by Cameron 'produced net gain for UK'. The Future Jobs Fund, introduced in 2009 to get 35,000 long-term unemployed people back into work, was scrapped in 2011 by David Cameron for being a badly targeted failure and too expensive. However, an impact analysis for the DWP found that society gained £7,750 per participant through wages, increased tax receipts and reduced benefit payments. The Guardian, Nov.23.2012.
  2. ^ Unemployed may be forced to volunteer alongside offenders. The long-term unemployed could find themselves working with offenders on "forced volunteering" placements under the govt's new Help to Work scheme. Kaya Burgess, The Times, May.06.2014.