Workfare in the United Kingdom is a system of welfare regulations put into effect by UK governments at various times. Individuals subject to workfare must undertake work in return for their welfare benefit payments or risk losing them. Workfare policies are politically controversial. Supporters claim that such policies help people move off welfare and into employment whereas critics argue that they are analogous to slavery or indentured servitude and counterproductive in decreasing unemployment.

The neutrality of this article is disputed. (February 2017)

"Workfare" began in the UK in the early 1990s with the first Major government's "Community Action" scheme in 1993 which was replaced in 1996 by the better known "Project Work" which was subsequently replaced by New Labour's "New Deal". Welfare-to-work or "active labour market policies" date back to 1986 and the second Thatcher government's introduction of compulsory "Restart" interviews for unemployed claimants; restart lasted until 1991 when it was superseded by the "make work" scheme "Employment Action" which lasted until 1993. However, the "Make work schemes" are not workfare, but they are a component part of policies such as welfare-to-work, "active labour market policies" and "welfare reform".

The distinction between workfare and "make work schemes" is that workfare is "work for benefits", either for a company in the public sector, or what has been called "bogus volunteering" for a charity. The work is undertaken as a condition of being able to claim social security payments such as unemployment benefit. This is in contrast to arrangements where claimants receive social security payments plus "a small supplemental payment".^[1]

The 1971 Family Income Supplement required payslips as proof of work^{[2][verification needed]}. It was replaced in 1986 by Family Credit, which in 1999 was replaced by Working Families' Tax Credit, replaced in 2003 by Working Tax Credit, which was absorbed into Universal Credit by 2018.

Welfare-to-work/"active labour market policies" first appeared in the early 1980s at time of mass unemployment. The Manpower Services Commission, a non-departmental public body had been created by the Heath government in the early 1970s whilst full employment existed. It ran the Youth Opportunities Programme which was introduced by the Callaghan Labour government in the late 1970s and was continued and extended by the incoming Conservative government, being replaced in 1983 by the better-known Youth Training Scheme (YTS).

Although workfare did exist in the 2000s under the New Labour government, it was not widely publicised nor widely used. In the early 2010s under the Conservative-led coalition government it became widely used and widely known. In a freedom of information response issued in January 2013, the Department for Work and Pensions stated that it "did not operate any "workfare programme(s)" or a "workfare scheme".^[3] A large scale opposition movement led to dozens of organizations withdrawing from what were then seven different schemes. This was reduced to five schemes after the Department for Work and Pensions announced in November 2015 that it was "not renewing" two of the schemes, "Community Work Placements" and "Mandatory Work Activity".^[4]

In November 2011, the Prime Minister's Office announced proposals under which Jobseeker's Allowance claimants who have not found a job once they have been through a work programme will do a 26-week placement in the community for 30 hours a week.^[5] According to The Guardian in 2012, under the Government's Community Action Programme^[6] people who have been out of work for a number of years "must work for six months unpaid, including at profit-making businesses, in order to keep their benefits".^[7]

These developments followed years of concern and discussion by people both for and against such schemes. In 1999, the UK charity Child Poverty Action Group expressed concern that a government announcement that single parents and the disabled may have to attend repeated interviews for jobs under threat of losing benefits was "a step towards a US-style workfare system". The Social Security Secretary at the time, Alistair Darling, described the plan as "harsh, but justifiable", claiming that it would help address the "poverty of expectation" of many claimants.^[8]

In 2008, research undertaken by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research for the Department for Work and Pensions found that there was little evidence that workfare programmes increased the likelihood of finding paid employment and could instead reduce the prospect of finding paid employment by "limiting the time available for job search and by failing to provide the skills and experience valued by employers".^[9] Despite the report, Lord Jones, former Minister of State for Trade and Investment, said in April 2010 that Britain needed to adopt American-style workfare.^[10]

During their 2013 annual conference the Conservative Party announced a new scheme, called Help to Work, the workfare aspect of which "Community Work Placements" expected claimants to work for up to 30 hours a week for 26 weeks in return for Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA). The scheme was introduced in April 2014, but scrapped in November 2015.^[11][12]

A number of different workfare schemes have been introduced in the UK. The anti-workfare group Boycott Workfare list eight schemes involving the risk of benefit loss (directly and indirectly).^[13]

• Help to Work (2014–2015)
• Mandatory Work Activity (2011–2015)
• Work Programme (2011–2017)
• Community Action Programme
• Sector-Based Work Academies
• Work Experience
• Steps to Work (Northern Ireland only)
• Day One Support for Young People Trailblazer
• Derbyshire "Trailblazer" Mandatory Youth Activity Programme

Chris Grayling, the UK's Minister for Employment between 2010 and 2012, criticised what he called the "Polly Toynbee left", saying that they failed to understand the modern labour market.^[15]

The Trade Union Congress, a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, has stated that workfare is exploitation of the unemployed, "paying" them below the minimum wage. The Trade Union Congress also highlight that workfare is unfair to paid workers who find themselves in competition with unpaid workers. In these cases the TUC claims that the result would be job losses and the deterioration of pay, overtime or other conditions. Employers who opted not to use workfare workers would also find themselves competing with other firms who are "effectively being subsidised".^[18]

The Guardian newspaper claimed in February 2012 that businesses in the UK which take staff via "work for your benefits programmes" included Asda, Maplin, Primark, Holland & Barrett, Boots, and McDonald's. The policy is similar to that which the Conservative Party administration hoped to introduce in the mid to late 1990s, which would most likely have been carried through had John Major not been defeated by Tony Blair in the 1997 general election.^{[citation needed]}

Critics also ascertain that the majority of menial, low paid jobs would end up being carried out by people on workfare who, because they are working but unpaid, would not be counted among the unemployment figures.^{[citation needed]} In an article in the Huffington Post, Dr Simon Duffy likened workfare to slavery.^[19] The Green Party of England and Wales has also voiced its opposition to workfare.^[20]

Academics have argued that, as workfare participants are essentially providing work that is beneficial to the employer, whether public or private, they should be granted employment status (as a worker or an employee) or, at least, employment protection, even regardless of status.^[21]

Research

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A 2008 review by the Department for Work and Pensions found has cast doubt on the effectiveness of workfare policies. After surveying evidence available from America, Canada, and Australia, the report states:

There is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood of finding work. It can even reduce employment chances by limiting the time available for job search and by failing to provide the skills and experience valued by employers. Subsidised ("transitional") job schemes that pay a wage can be more effective in raising employment levels than 'work for benefit' programmes. Workfare is least effective in getting people into jobs in weak labour markets where unemployment is high.^[22]

However, this report - now over a decade old - notes there was a limited pool of evidence.^[9]

• Boycott Workfare
• Economic oppression
• Exploitation of labour
• Forced labour
• Involuntary servitude
• Refusal of work
• Unfree labour
• Wage slavery
• Work ethic
• Workhouses in the United Kingdom
• Youth unemployment in the United Kingdom