Back to work schemes for incapacity benefit claimants
March 18, 2008
Getting people on incapacity benefits back to work is high on the agenda at the moment. Incapacity benefit is paid when someone has exceeded the maximum six months statutory sick pay and is still incapable of returning to work through ill health. Whilst the Government used to concentrate on those claiming jobseekers allowance, through employment schemes such as New Deal, in recent years there has been a shift in focus to reducing the number of people on incapacity benefit in the UK, which currently stands at 2.5 million.
Recently it was announced that as part of a ‘back to work drive’, all people claiming incapacity benefit will go through rigorous tests of their ability to work by 2013, and then will be provided with support to get back into work. But it’s not all about ability – many people will find it hard to find employment when they have been out of action for so long, as many employers will be dubious at taking on workers without recent work experience or if they may pose a risk of having a larger than usual amount of sick leave.
This is where Jobcentre Plus is having an impact, through the development of local employment partnerships (LEPs). These partnerships allow employers to tap into a wider labour pool whilst offering long term incapacity benefit claimants to gain essential training and participate in work. The employer offers a work trial (around a month) and the employee continues to claim benefits whilst on the trial, so there is no cost to the employer. If the employee does well they will be taken on permanently and taken off incapacity benefit. This set up has worked well at Nissan in the North East, where there is quite high unemployment but from my experience it can be very tricky to find enough suitable staff on a large scale recruitment drive. Nissan is currently recruiting 800 staff, and the Gateshead College Skills Academy for automotive, engineering, manufacturing and logistics courses is preparing people for Nissan through a training scheme called ‘Nissan Gateway’ as part of the LEP.
This is a fantastic opportunity for employers who are struggling to fill roles, particularly for large employers such as Nissan who are recruiting on a large scale, where an ongoing programme such as Nissan Gateway can be established. Employers will need to remember though that the new employees will need more flexibility and support in their first few months than ‘regular’ employees. A lot of people on long term benefits will have lost a lot of confidence in themselves and will perhaps not be used to the rigidity of working full time. Well designed and implemented induction programmes, which may simply build on the existing induction programme will help to integrate employees back into the world of work. Other schemes such as a buddy system will also provide employees with a source of support and guidance within the first few weeks and months back in work.
As well as reducing the number of people claiming benefits in the UK, schemes to enable people claiming incapacity benefit to return to work will open up a whole new section of the labour market for employers who are willing to take a few risks and put a bit of time and effort into their internal mechanisms for supporting such schemes. However it must be remembered that lots of people are on incapacity benefit because they are actually incapable of working at all, so hopefully the new Government tests will be realistic and won’t leave thousands of people trying to fulfill jobs they are not capable of doing – as this will cause more problems for the employers participating in the schemes, and something that has a lot of promise may ultimately fail.
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