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A hard copy of this report summary can be obtained by contacting Paul Noakes [E-Mail: Paul.Noakes@dwp.gsi.gov.uk] or by writing to him at the 'Social Research Division, Department for Work and Pensions, 4th Floor, Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6HT'.
Research Report No. 99
By Stephen McKay, Alison Smith, Rachel Youngs and Robert Walker
Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) was introduced in October 1996 and replaced Unemployment Benefit (UB) and Income Support (IS) as the benefit for unemployed people. In order to evaluate the new benefit, a series of ‘before’ and ‘after’ studies were conducted to establish changes that could be attributed to the introduction of JSA. This report is the third in a series of four based on findings from the JSA claimant surveys and the first to use the post-JSA findings. The report examines issues such as the characteristics of unemployed people and their partners; clients’ understanding of rules, their experience of the Employment Service, jobsearch strategies, activities whilst claiming and routes off benefit. The report compares the findings with those from the pre-JSA claimant survey.
Key findings include:
- The proportion of jobseekers leaving benefit at any one time had increased following the introduction of JSA, although destinations remained the same. As was the case prior to JSA, the duration of a jobseeker’s unemployment appeared to influence the economic status of his/her partner, with economic activity rates lower amongst partners of longer-term unemployed people.
- Under JSA jobseekers showed greater awareness of, and agreement with, the conditionality attached to benefit receipt. ‘Active signing’ procedures in the fortnightly jobsearch review had increased significantly.
- Jobseekers were spending slightly longer looking for work following the introduction of JSA. Many respondents experienced difficulties with their jobsearch, with two-fifths mentioning financial barriers, such as travel costs; and a quarter mentioning non-financial barriers, such as poor health.
- Around one in ten respondents were undertaking part-time work whilst claiming. A similar number were undertaking voluntary work and/or a course of study whilst claiming. Since the introduction of JSA, more jobseekers were aware that undertaking part-time work whilst claiming was permitted.
- The median wages earned by men leaving unemployment fell between the 1995 survey and the 1997 survey whilst median wages for women increased or remained fairly level in real terms. Nevertheless, in general those leaving benefit under the JSA regime encountered fewer problems than did those leaving benefit under UB/IS. Once respondents had left unemployment, in the majority of cases they felt that their financial circumstances improved.
- Knowledge of work incentive measures was not universal.
Unemployment and jobseeking after the introduction of JSA
JSA was introduced in October 1996, and marked an important shift in the emphasis of benefits for unemployed people. This report analyses interviews conducted in autumn 1997, about one year after the introduction of JSA, and comparisons are made with a separate (baseline) sample interviewed two years previously.
A total of 4777 respondents were interviewed as part of the post-JSA sample, including a large sample of new benefit recipients (those signing on for less than two weeks at the time of sampling).
Unemployed people: characteristics under JSA
Overall, the personal and family characteristics of people in the pre and post-JSA samples were very similar.There were two notable differences. First, there was a five per cent increase in the numbers living with their parents in the post-JSA sample. The corollary was a slight increase in the proportion of single respondents. The other difference between the cohorts was an increase of seven percentage points in those whose claiming duration was between six and 12 months, with a drop of six per cent in the numbers claiming for between one and two years.
Partners of JSA clients
One third of all respondents in the post-JSA survey had a partner. Respondents with a partner were more likely to be male and aged over 35. Eighty six per cent of interviewed partners were female and 63 per cent had children aged under 16.
Fifty four per cent of partners gave their main activity as care of the home and family. Seventeen per cent were in full-time work, 14 per cent were working part-time and eight per cent were unemployed and looking for work.
Based on when the respondent was claiming benefit, 29 per cent of partners were in paid work, 12 per cent were not working but were looking for a job and 24 per cent were not working or looking but said they would like to work. Six per cent were not sure whether they would like a job and 29 per cent said they definitely did not want to work. Partners without children were most likely to be working (42 per cent) and only 19 per cent did not want to work. Partners with pre-school aged children were least likely to be working (14 per cent) but 31 per cent said they would like to work.
Partners were more likely to be working when the respondent was no longer claiming benefit as unemployed. Partners of respondents unemployed for less than six months were also more likely to be working (41 per cent compared to 16 per cent of partners of respondents unemployed for more than six months). However, few partners (four per cent) said they had changed their working hours because of the respondent’s unemployment. Partners were more likely to work when local unemployment rates were higher.
The most common reasons for not working were family commitments (69 per cent), long term sickness (20 per cent) and concerns that the respondent’s benefit would be reduced or stopped (14 per cent).
Understanding of rules and obligations among jobseekers
There were few differences between the pre and post-JSA surveys in benefit recipients’ spontaneous recall of rules and obligations. Based on open-ended questions, levels of respondents’ knowledge seemed to be quite low. The most common answers regarding rules about claiming benefit related to actively seeking work (33 per cent) and needing to sign off benefit when getting a job (29 per cent). One-fifth of respondents were unable to state a rule.
Prompted questions showed higher levels of awareness. When asked, 93 per cent of respondents remembered signing a Jobseeker’s Agreement, but very few mentioned their Jobseeker’s Agreement in the context of the conditions of benefit receipt. Most said they had followed their Jobseeker’s Agreement at least to some extent (93 per cent) but less than half of those following the agreement said they found it useful (42 per cent). The most common response of those who did not find their Jobseeker’s Agreement useful was that it had no practical value (41 per cent).
Most respondents knew their benefit could be stopped or reduced (87 per cent) but far fewer were able to state reasons why. For someone receiving benefit as unemployed whilst not really looking for work, more than half (51 per cent) thought ‘Their benefit will be stopped’ (compared to 40 per cent in the pre JSA survey). Only ten per cent said ‘Nothing will happen, as no one really checks…’ (compared to 13 per cent in the pre-JSA survey).
There seems to have been no increase in the proportion of jobseekers who saw their benefit reduced or stopped at the beginning of their most recent claim. For those who had experienced this (16 per cent), many gave other reasons than sanction or disallowance.
Most unemployed people agreed, at least in principle, with the basic idea of conditionality underlying JSA and this view seems to have strengthened since the introduction of JSA. Ninety six per cent of respondents believed it was their responsibility to look for a job. Seventy eight per cent agreed that getting benefit should depend on proving you are doing all you can to get a job, compared to 73 per cent in the pre-JSA survey. Just 11 per cent said they would not look for work if their benefit did not depend on it.
Contact with the employement service
JSA aims to make dealings between unemployed benefit recipients and the Employment Service and Benefits Agency more straightforward. Jobseekers are now only required to contact the Employment Service in order to have their claim processed.
Three-quarters of newly unemployed people contacted the Employment Service on no more than two occasions for their claim to be processed. Although this did not alter between the cohorts, there was a significant decrease in the numbers making one contact and an increase in the numbers making two. Repeat claimants were more likely to make just one contact, suggesting a familiarity with the system.
Eighty three per cent of respondents who made a new claim within the 12 weeks prior to the survey were able to recall their New Jobseeker Interview, an increase of eight per cent on pre-JSA. Most respondents had a clear understanding of what was expected of them following the interview and there was a clear increase in the numbers between cohorts taking action as a direct result.
At the Fortnightly Jobsearch Review the Employment Service continues and develops the active elements of fortnightly intervention introduced prior to JSA. During their fortnightly interview two-thirds of jobseekers were asked about their jobsearch compared to 35 per cent under the old system. All aspects of active signing were found to have increased since the introduction of JSA. However, the extent to which a Jobcentre adopted active signing depended heavily on the area in which it was located. The majority of jobseekers believed the fortnightly interview to be a checking mechanism although there was a decline in the numbers who felt that it was simply a means of getting benefit.
Fifty six per cent of respondents unemployed for more than 12 weeks remembered attending a Client Adviser Interview, 14 per cent fewer than the pre-JSA cohort. However, there was an increase in the proportions who recalled their interview to be of use between cohorts (from 48 per cent to 57 per cent). Despite this, almost half of those who remembered attending a Client Adviser Interview said they did not take any action as a direct result.
The proportions who recalled being directed by an adviser fell between cohorts, a possible reflection of the increased prominence of the rules relating to JSA.
Looking for work
Ninety five per cent of respondents were looking for work, the majority taking active steps to return to the labour market. One of the commonest methods of looking for work was through the vacancy column in the local newspaper (89 per cent used this method). In addition, three-quarters looked at the vacancy boards in their local Jobcentre, and one-quarter asked friends or relatives if they knew of any openings. In general, the methods used by respondents in their search for work did not alter following the introduction of JSA. However, there was a ten per cent increase, to 41 per cent, in the numbers directly contacting employers.
Overall, respondents were spending slightly longer looking for work each week post-JSA (from 6.5 hours to 7.1 hours). Almost half of the respondents felt the time they were able to spend looking for work was limited for some reason. Travel costs were a barrier mentioned by one third of respondents.
There was an increase in the number of applications made in the four weeks prior to interview following the introduction of JSA, reflecting the increased time spent looking for work. Eighty four per cent of respondents had applied for at least one job in the four weeks prior to the 1997 interview. Thirty eight per cent of respondents attended an interview. Fifty one per cent of these interviews resulted in an offer of a job.
Before the introduction of JSA, clients demonstrated quite high levels of flexibility in the jobsearch, and following the introduction of JSA, there was little change. The majority looked for full-time employment exclusively. However, they remained flexible in the type of full-time employment they would accept, with seven in ten prepared to do shift work or work at weekends and six in ten prepared to work nights.
Respondents continued to have a number of concerns over returning to paid work, including the costs of starting a new job (such as travel expenses), wage levels and the loss of some benefits. These concerns did not vary under the different benefit regimes.
Part-time jobs, voluntary work and study
Both before and after the introduction of JSA, 13 per cent had worked part-time whilst claiming benefit. This was more common among women than men, and was more likely the longer that someone had remained unemployed. It did not seem to be associated with a faster rate of movement off benefit. After the introduction of JSA, there was an increase in the proportion of jobseekers who were aware that undertaking part-time work whilst claiming was permitted, from 25 per cent to 32 per cent.
Under one-tenth (nine per cent) of respondents were engaged in voluntary work, compared with eight per cent pre-JSA. More than half (56 per cent) began voluntary work before their current spell of unemployment. A slightly higher proportion of those who carried out voluntary work had left benefit by the time of the first interview compared to the sample as a whole (33 per cent compared to 29 per cent).
Thirteen per cent of respondents were studying whilst on benefit, and an additional ten per cent had done so at some point in their current spell of unemployment. Some types of course appeared to increase the chances of leaving benefit, but chances were lower among some groups who had studied in the past.
Routes off benefit
Among most groups of the sample (defined by their personal characteristics) the proportion leaving benefit had increased after the introduction of JSA. A total of 29 per cent of the post-JSA sample, compared with one-fifth (20 per cent) of the pre-JSA sample, were not on benefit by the time of the first interview. In both samples the groups most likely to have left benefit included those aged under 25, those with qualifications and those unemployed for relatively short periods of time.
The range of different destinations of those leaving benefit changed little between the two surveys, in both cases 48 per cent moved into full-time work. The main difference was an increased proportion (up from 11 per cent to 19 per cent) in those giving their main status as being on a government training programme. In finding a new job the importance of friends and relatives declined from 30 to 25 per cent, though this remained the single most important source of information. The job had been found through a recruitment agency in 13 per cent of cases, an increase from six per cent pre-JSA.
There was a significant reduction in the take-home pay of men after JSA. The average take-home wage of men's post-unemployment job fell from £179 (pre-JSA) to £153 (post-JSA), a reduction of 17 per cent. This reduction could be reflecting changes in labour demand, shorter periods of jobsearch, higher awareness of in-work benefits and perhaps other factors. The level of ‘median’ wages also fell, from £150 to £141, or six per cent. Women’s average net wages rose from £115 to £122 (an increase of six per cent), with median wages rising by 19 per cent. Average weekly hours of work changed little, for men falling from 40 to 39, and for women increasing from 30 to 31.
A number of those leaving benefit said they faced particular problems, most commonly having to wait for wages to be paid, and simply meeting general living expenses, each cited by 19 per cent of post-JSA respondents. Generally speaking, those leaving benefit after JSA was introduced encountered fewer problems than did those leaving benefit in 1995. An important exception to this positive picture was the increased proportion mentioning the time to sort out Housing Benefit, which increased from two to nine per cent of those leaving benefit. This increase may be due to the introduction of the Extended Payment scheme in 1996, and perhaps greater knowledge of the function of Housing Benefit as an in-work benefit.
Once respondents had left unemployment, in the majority of cases their assessment of their financial circumstances improved. In the post-JSA sample, the proportion saying they felt worse off declined from 20 per cent to 14 per cent, whilst those saying they were better off increased slightly from 61 to 63 per cent. Almost half of jobseekers were aware of at least one major work incentive measure (such as the Back to Work Bonus), but generally they had a much lower level of knowledge of the details.
Discussion and main conclusions
The full effects of JSA will take some time to become apparent but it has already achieved significant short-term changes. The proportion of people who found employment between sample selection and interview rose by nine percentage points (from 20 to 29 per cent) although this does not take account of changes in the economy, or in other factors over the period.
Among the clearest changes has been an increase in the pro-active role played by the Employment Service. This has been more the case in some Jobcentres than in others, although the magnitude of some of the changes has been very great. The number of applications being made by jobseekers increased, particularly in the areas of higher unemployment. The overall time spent looking for work changed little, and a small increase had more to do with better job prospects than with JSA. In addition, Jobseeker’s Agreements have attained much greater salience than did the earlier Back to Work Plans.
Overall, the research indicates that JSA has achieved significant changes in the labour market in the short term, however, whether those changes are sustained in the longer term needs to be explored further. The next report, the final report in the series, will address this issue and will control for changes in the economy in order to assess the independent impact of Jobseeker’s Allowance.
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/99summ.asp
This large report has been split into small files for easy download.
- Preliminaries - including contents
- Executive Summary
- Chapters 1-4
- Chapters 5-7
- Chapters 8-10
- References and Annexes
Research Report No. 87
By Karen Kellard, Robert Walker, Karl Ashworth, Alison Smith, Heather Trickey
People who were unemployed in July 1995, and who had been interviewed in Autumn 1995 and again in Spring 1996 as part of the evaluation of Jobseeker' s Allowance; were re-interviewed in Summer 1997 (Section 1).
Most interviews were conducted by telephone. Those without a telephone were interviewed fice-to-face (Section 1.4). The objectives of the third wave of interviews included: improving estimates of the duration of unemployment and identifying the factors which account for individual variations; further exploring the labour market trajectories of people after a spell of unemployment; exploring whether education, training; voluntary work and part-time work facilitate moves into full-time work; investigating the role ofin-work benefits; and learning something about the early implementation of Jobseeker' s Allowance.
Findings relate to a period of benefit change associated with the introduction ofJobseeker's Allowance, which may limit generalisability to other periods in time. The study focuses primarily on supply-side influences on employment chances, as opposed to variation in labour demand.
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/report_abstracts/rr_abstracts/rra_08...
A hard copy of this report summary can be obtained by contacting Paul Noakes [E-Mail: Paul.Noakes@dwp.gsi.gov.uk] or by writing to him at the 'Social Research Division, Department for Work and Pensions, 4th Floor, Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6HT'.
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Research Report No. 73
By Stephen McKay, Robert Walker and Rachel Youngs
In October 1996 Jobseeker's Allowance replaced Unemployment Benefit and Income Support for unemployed claimants. This research will contribute to the baseline against which the new system will be evaluated. This report describes the findings from two waves of interviews, held six months apart, with a sample of 5000 people who were claiming unemployment related benefits before the introduction of Jobseeker's Allowance. The research was commissioned by the Department for Education and Employment, the Department of Social Security, the Employment Service and the Benefits Agency and was carried out by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University.
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Introduction
In October 1996 Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) replaced Unemployment Benefit and Income Support for unemployed claimants. The policy aims to improve the working of the labour market, secure better value for money and enhance the service to people seeking work. The Department for Education and Employment, the Department of Social Security, the Employment Service and Benefits Agency jointly commissioned a series of 'before' and 'after' studies as part of the evaluation of JSA. The centrepiece of the research, carried out by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, is a series of surveys in which the experience of two separate samples (or cohorts) of unemployed people are compared under the old and new benefit regimes.
This report describes the experiences of people who were claiming benefit before the introduction of Jobseeker's Allowance and so will contribute to a baseline against which the effectiveness of the new system can eventually be evaluated. It is based on two interviews, conducted some six months apart, with a nationally representative sample of 5,000 people who were unemployed and receiving benefit in Autumn 1995.
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Flows out of unemployment
Most spells of unemployment are comparatively short and a correspondingly small proportion of people suffer long-term unemployment. Thirty two per cent of new claimants left unemployment-related benefits within six weeks of becoming unemployed and half within 14 weeks. Because people who do not return to work quickly build up in the stock of unemployed people, the average (median) spell of unemployment for the stock sample was noticeably longer, 36 rather than 14 weeks. Some claimants leave benefits only to return again within weeks: as many as one in three of the sample who stopped signing on were back on benefit before thirty weeks had passed. The likelihood was initially high (10 per cent were reclaiming within a month and 17 per cent within six weeks), but fell quickly.
Almost two-thirds of respondents who left unemployment did so for paid work and, of these, nearly four out of five found full time employment. Around half of the jobs, though, were fixed term or temporary. Weekly earnings were £146 for men and £110 for women, considerably less than the average earnings of manual workers (£301 and £195 respectively). A significant minority supplemented their wages with Family Credit (two-fifths of those with children and in full-time work and one-fifth of those taking a part-time job) or Housing Benefit (received by about one in eight respondents who were working). Of the 17 per cent of claimants who took part time jobs (57 per cent of them women) almost a third had switched to full-time work within six months.
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Rules, responsibilities and interventions
A key objective of introducing Jobseeker's Allowance was to improve awareness of the conditionality of receipt of unemployment-related benefits. The research found that before its introduction, claimants had only a hazy recollection of the rules. This does not mean that claimants were totally unaware of the conditions of benefit receipt. The vast majority, for example, were diligently looking for work. However, it appears that the individual rules had limited salience and were seen as part of the process of 'signing on'.
The majority of people were aware that infringement of the rules could lead to sanctions but, again, few understood the details. Over a third thought that nothing would happen to them if they stopped looking for work. Nevertheless, eight per cent of respondents said that they had changed their behaviour in the previous six months through fear of losing benefit and four per cent of respondents who were signing on at the second interview reported being sanctioned in some way.
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The effect of Employment Service interventions
The Jobseeker's Agreement was introduced as a condition of eligibility under the change to Jobseeker's Allowance. The Agreement is modelled on the voluntary Back-to-Work Plan which existed under the previous system but is more specific and mandatory. The survey revealed that two-thirds of respondents remembered their Back-to-Work Plan and that over eight out of ten of these followed it, at least in part. Few, though, did so with much conviction and, indeed, there was no evidence that following a Back-to-Work Plan speeded a person's return to work.
Active signing had more effect. The signing on interview (now known as fortnightly attendance) is used by staff as an opportunity to monitor and assist with job-search and is an important component of Jobseeker's Allowance. Forty per cent of claimants whose last visit to sign on had included elements of active signing said that they took action as a direct result, almost a third applying for a specific job. Moreover, statistical modelling indicates that active signing increased the flow of people off benefit, although there was no evidence from the two interviews held that it conferred a sustained labour market advantage: the same proportion of respondents were employed at the time of the second wave interview irrespective of what had happened when last they signed on.
Modelling also detected an increase in the numbers of people leaving benefit just after they would have been due for a 13 week review or a Restart interview. This is despite the fact that around half of the respondents affected said they did not find the review helpful and/or took no action as a result. Again there is no evidence, at this stage in the research programme, of a long-term impact on employment prospects.
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Finding work
The vast majority of claimants were steadfastly committed to finding work and actively seeking it. In aggregate, job-search at the time of the second interview remained at the same high level as it had been six months earlier, and there was no evidence of widespread discouragement or of people welcoming a life on benefit.
On average respondents spent four and a half hours per week looking for work. Only one per cent of those signing on for work at the time of the second interview admitted that they did not want to work, although an additional three per cent were not looking for jobs - a quarter on health grounds.
Taken in aggregate there is no suggestion that people become increasingly inflexible the longer that they are without work. There were however exceptions. They included the young, especially those living with parents or other single people, claimants with a mixture of vocational and academic qualifications, those who had never before been unemployed and those with a history of unemployment.
The research suggests that people either alternated the methods of finding work which they used, or were prone to change their strategy over time. They also relied increasingly on friends and relatives as sources of information. The level of activity, though, was generally sustained. On the other hand, the success rate of applications fell over time: the proportion resulting in interviews dropped from 31 per cent to 23 per cent while those producing job offers declined from 16 per cent to nine per cent.
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Effective job-search activities
The probability of a person finding work seemed to be related to the method used rather than to the time spent looking. Moreover, different methods seemed to be variously effective for different groups of respondents. There was little point in people without qualifications scouring national newspapers but direct approaches to employers and registering with a recruitment agency proved profitable for this group. Nevertheless it was members of the professions and managers who benefited most from direct contact with employers as they did from speaking to friends; the latter strategy proved to be of little value to people without qualifications. Jobclubs seemed to achieve most for claimants with few, if any, skills, while non-manual workers seemed to gain more than most from the advice of Jobcentre staff.
Thirty per cent of jobs were found through friends and relatives. Another 14 per cent were secured by contacting employers, or by employers approaching claimants; a similar number were found through advertisements in local newspapers and 12 per cent from displays in Jobcentres. Advice from Employment Service staff emerged, after friends, as the most effective strategy (2.4 times 'better' than average).
Respondents who were more prepared to take a flexible approach, both to the kind of job that they wanted and to the level of wage that they would accept, placed themselves at a slight competitive advantage. Only 18 per cent of people who took part-time work had initially intended to do so, and 43 per cent of those taking part-time work had specifically been seeking a full-time position. Similarly, 44 per cent of those who had begun work were employed for less than their stated reservation wage; disproportionate numbers were claimants with children of whom 45 per cent were receiving Family Credit in their new job.
But flexibility did not always bring the expected rewards. A willingness to take part-time work appeared, at first sight, to be associated with a greater chance of finding a job. However, once account had been taken of the other characteristics of the claimants, notably sex and qualifications, the preparedness to take part-time work actually counted against the job-seeker: it may sometimes have been an act of desperation rather than a successful strategy. On the other hand, a preparedness to take any job emerged as a significant factor in helping someone find work once gender, skills and experience had been discounted.
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The employment of partners of the unemployed
Employment among partners of unemployed respondents was around 31 per cent below the corresponding rate for the partners of people in work. However, little of the overall shortfall was directly attributed to 'perverse incentives' created by the benefits system.
The majority of people (73 per cent at least) who were working when their partner became unemployed continued to do so. However, in line with expectations, some partners did stop work. This was most noticeable in situations where the partner was female and/or had no formal qualifications and where the couple was dependent on a means-tested, unemployment-related benefit. The resultant fall in the proportion of partners working generally seemed to be short-lived once claimants were back at work. Perhaps most unexpectedly, almost as many people began working following the unemployment of their partner as ceased to do so.
Statistical modelling, undertaken by Peter Elias of the Institute for Employment research, suggests that only about 11 per cent of the shortfall in the employment of the partners of claimants was due to the unemployment of their claimant partner. About half of this effect may have been attributable to the ending of entitlement to Unemployment Benefit after 12 months of unemployment.
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Leaving unemployment
While being prepared to settle for a lower wage and pursuing one method of job-search rather than another may speed some people's return to work, the chances of a person leaving unemployment rapidly are often determined long before they become unemployed.
The possession of qualifications, particularly academic ones, more than halved the median duration of unemployment, although the absence of qualifications seemed less of an impediment to women than it was to men. On the other hand, claimants aged over 45 or with children, especially young ones, a health problem or who were tenants rather than owner occupiers, were likely to remain on benefit for longer than average. The same was true of people who either worked part-time or engaged in study while claiming as unemployed.
The initial cause of unemployment emerged as one of the main predictors of more lengthy spells on benefit. People who began claiming straight after leaving full-time education experienced the shortest periods of unemployment, though an above average (if still small) proportion then returned to full-time study. Likewise, those moving onto benefit after a spell of temporary work tended to leave benefit two to three times more quickly than claimants who had been dismissed or made redundant.
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Worries about returning to work
Recent policy changes have sought to reduce uncertainty about income levels for people leaving benefit: the introduction of Housing Benefit Extended Payments and fast-tracking of Family Credit applications serve as examples. Claimants who mentioned concerns about income levels, frequently in relation to housing costs and the Council Tax, tended to remain on benefit for longer than other claimants, although other worries - such as repaying debts and managing until the first pay day - had much less effect. However in practice most people who succeeded in returning to work did not experience problems of this kind, although between one in seven and one in eight of those who returned to work reported difficulties arising from the loss or reduction of Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefits or passport benefits and one in five encountered problems bridging the time to the first pay cheque.
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Conclusions
From the perspective of evaluating the effects of Jobseeker's Allowance, the key points to emerge are that the vast majority of unemployed claimants were already diligently seeking work, most were reasonably flexible in the work that they would take and that many followed the instructions given to them by the Employment Service, albeit often with little enthusiasm. In addition, some methods of job-search appeared, in certain circumstances, to be better than others and it was possible to detect an effect of one or two Employment Service procedures, notably active signing and the 13 week review, on the chances of finding work.
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Relevant publications
An earlier report in the DSS research series presents findings from the first interview carried out with the pre-JSA claimant sample:
Bottomley, D., McKay, S. and Walker, R. (1997) “Unemployment and Jobseeking: A National Survey in 1995 ”(Department of Social Security Research Report No. 62). London: HMSO.
A series of qualitative studies were commissioned to complement the claimant survey. Those listed below describe the benefits regime before JSA; post-JSA qualitative research has been commissioned or is planned.
Cragg, Ross and Dawson (1997) “Employment Service Claimants and the Benefit System”. London: Cragg, Ross and Dawson.
Croft, J. (1997) “Studying Whilst Unemployed ”(DfEE Research Studies No. 43). London: TSO
Elam, G., and Thomas, A. (1997) “Stepping Stones to Employment: Part-time Work and Voluntary Activities Whilst Claiming Out-of-Work Social Security Benefits ”(DSS Research Report No. 71). London: TSO.
Kellard, K., and Stafford, B. (1997)“ Delivering Benefits to Unemployed People ”(DSS Research Report No. 69). London: TSO.
MORI, (1997) “The Effect of Jobseeker's Allowance on 16 and 17 Year Olds: Baseline Survey, ”London: MORI.
Stafford, B., Dobson, B. and Vincent, J. (forthcoming) “Delivering Benefits to Unemployed 16 to 17 year olds ”(DSS Research Report No. 70). London: TSO.
Vincent, J., and Dobson, B. (1997) “Jobseeker's Allowance Evaluation: Qualitative Research on Disallowed and Disqualified Claimants ”(DfEE Research Report No. 15). London: DfEE.
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Other publications of research commissioned as part of the evaluation of JSA are:
Atkinson, J., and Pollard, E. (1997) “Jobsearch: A Review of the UK Literature Prior to the Jobseeker's Allowance. ”Brighton: The Institute for Employment Studies.
Elias, P. (1997) “The Effect of Unemployment Benefits on the Labour Force Participation of Partners,” Warwick: Institute for Employment Research, Warwick University.
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/73summ.asp