Social Market Foundation (SMF): report Vicious Cycles: Sustained employment and welfare reform for the next decade. 

Social Market Foundation (SMF):  report Vicious Cycles: Sustained employment and welfare reform for the next decade.

The SMF have published this report which examines  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. To tackle this and the problem of the disengagement of the long- term unemployed, this report recommends the following reforms:

• From the first day of their benefit claim onwards, multi-client groups of jobseekers should be served by providers who are paid by results, using an escalator payment model.
• A unified employment service would replace existing services provided under Jobcentre Plus, Pathways to Work and the Flexible New Deal.
• Information on the proportion of the past two years that a person has spent unemployed should be made available to ensure that those who need help to sustain employment get it.
• Sustained employment outcome payments should be made according to the proportion of the year a person spends in employment after first finding work.

Over the coming decade, tackling high unemployment and improving public sector efficiency will dominate the agenda: this report outlines the welfare reform solution to both.