Flexible New Deal

Please Note: flexible-new-deal.co.uk replaces this website. Please continue to view newdealscandal.wordpress.com for archived New Deal news and information. flexible-new-deal.co.uk (click Flexible New Deal below) will contained news and information on the flexible New Deal.

Flexible New Deal and the New Deal

This page is dedicated to the Flexible New Deal and the alleged successes and issues with the old New Deal.

Words from the Prime Minister

With New Deal Scandals views in italic!

The New Deal was both a statement of our values and a key part of our economic strategy. Introduced after two decades in which child poverty more than doubled; the number of people on Incapacity Benefit had risen by one and a half million; and more than 80,000 young people had been on unemployment benefit for more than a year.

Our values? Child Poverty has doubled but what really has the New Deal scheme alone done to tackle that? The 80,000 long term unemployed young people seems so long in the past as it is now.

It said that we valued every person in our society and that our economy in turn needed them to be active if we were all to be successful. Bringing in the New Deal was hard work. Many opposed it then – and still oppose it – believing that the answer to people being out of work is to neglect them.

What society is that then? You mean Parliament? Ah yes! Pay the overpaid Members of Parliament scandalous expense claims… that way no one would ever undermine you and resign from your cabinet. Oh wait.. they still did. You then gave big pay deals to buy them people out.

I can promise you that New Deal Scandal, Ipswich Unemployed Action and all the other groups that oppose New Deal now and back then, are not wanting to neglect anyone. In fact, the absolute opposite… we want people to be treated well, get proper training and for the companies delivering such “services” not to defraud the taxpayer. That has to be the most concise list leaving out all but just 3 New Deal issues that New Deal Complaints, New Deal Scandal, Ipswich Unemployed Action and all the other groups have been highlighting. If you can’t sort out just 3 of these issues then you have no hope or chance of it being a “world-class” scheme.

The rights and responsibilities agenda that the New Deal brought in was challenging to many while the changes in the way our systems worked meant upheaval for many staff.

Very much so. Ipswich Unemployed Acti0n reported that one participant was effectively exited before he even got on to the programme. This was nice for YMCA Training as they got paid for it – about 30 minutes work maximum.

But it was all worth it. Over its 10 years, more than 1.8 million people have been helped into jobs by the New Deals. An extra 300,000 lone parents in work has helped us lift 600,000 children out of poverty, the numbers on Incapacity Benefit are falling, while long-term claimant unemployment for young people has been virtually eliminated.

The problem with those jobs is they aren’t sustainable and a lot are zero-hour contract jobs.

Virtually eliminated? Above you state 80,000 young people were not only unemployed but long term unemployed before the New Deal. All the New Deal did was take the unemployed young people and change their status from “unemployed” although in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance to “in training”. Some people on work placement even became known as “employed”.

In fact, the young person unemployment count has rapidly increased although I see why those on NDYP (New Deal for Young People) are stuck on New Deal more often then the older age ranges doing ND25+ IAP (Intensive Activity Period). It can only be realised that this move was down to lowering the young people unemployment count.

Now as we look ahead we need a reformed New Deal to help us face the challenges of the next decades. In the old days the problem may have been unemployment, but in the next decades it will be employability. If in the old days lack of jobs demanded priority action, in the new world it is lack of skills. And that means that our whole approach to welfare must move on.

Whats this I hear about millions of new jobs having been created? Besides this is all bullshit. Employability and Unemployment always went hand in hand. Employers always look for those highly skilled for their requirements although the ratio of qualifications to experience isn’t a direct link factor to whether your skills are great or not.

Did I hear lack of skills? As opposed to lack of experience? Will Jobseekers now get the chance to actually better themselves? Instead of doing free labour and sitting round in a classroom doing 30 hours of intensive job search.

In future the best welfare will no longer be the benefits you have today but the skills you gain for tomorrow. Rights and responsibilities will remain the cornerstone of our philosophy. But we reject the failed approach of simply cutting benefits and hoping for the best, and instead draw on the best practice from what has worked in Britain and overseas.

You rejected the approach of cutting benefits? Whats with all these new sanctions? Jobseekers randomly having their claims terminated or not being paid? Those disabled and ill are being forced to claim Jobseekers at a lower amount: is that not a benefit cut?

We will combine tough sanctions for those who refuse to work or train with better and more targeted support for those most in need to give them the skills and advice they need to get back onto the jobs ladder. And for those on incapacity benefits, we will focus on capability and what people can do, not on disability and what they cannot do.

Ironically blog viewers, I was typing the responses before reading the actual speech in full and surprise surprise… “tough sanctions”… The problem is refusing to (do Community Service like) work (for benefit no wages) and refusing (no actual real) training (consisting of sitting in a room all day every day – apart from weekends) is all in your rights. These aren’t actual real jobs or real training that people are refusing to do. I mean, its common sense, who would refuse that?

At the end of January a major conference will bring together government, employers and our private and voluntary sector partners to set out the next steps in this agenda The work we are doing with employers through Local Employment Partnerships; the introduction of the flexible New Deal to create a welfare system more personalised to specific needs and capabilities of individuals; and the use of the private and voluntary sector to deliver help to those who need more help, will see the next decade of welfare policy and the New Deal help deliver lower unemployment and inactivity and better economic prospects, not just for some, but for all.

Workfare? Well… lets hope you enjoy the few remaining months left in office. Flexible New Deal will still be a one size fit all system, after all New Deal promised (and still does today) to do just that but never happened in all its 10 years or so it ran for. Flexible New Deal provision has been left wide open as to what the providers can actually offer clients on a post code lottery style system.

Gordon is a Moron
Prime Minister (if he still is)

Flexible New Deal

New Deal has been the most successful innovation in the history of the UK labour market. During the last 10 years, the New Deals have helped more than 1.8 million people into work. Over the last decade, the labour market has changed beyond recognition: the New Deals are now 10 years old and so they too must evolve to ensure we are ready for the challenges of the next decade.

On 2 January 2008, the Government announced exciting new plans for transforming Britain’s labour market and this includes the introduction of a more Flexible New Deal.

This is a fundamental part of the Government’s wider welfare reform and will underpin the principles of working towards eradicating child poverty by 2020.

The Flexible New Deal will replace the current New Deal 18 – 24 and 25+ and Employment Zones programmes. It will provide an inspiring opportunity for Prime Contractor organisations from the private, public and third sectors to work together in partnership to deliver this new programme across all Jobcentre Plus districts from Autumn 2009.

The five core principles of the Flexible New Deal

1. A stronger framework of rights and responsibilities to move benefit customers from being passive recipients to active jobseekers.
2. A personalised and responsive approach to individual customer needs which will provide tailored employment and skills support to meet the needs of both customers and local employers.
3. A partnership approach with public, private and third sector organisations working together to maximise innovation, leading to more and better outcomes.
4. Devolving and empowering communities for future sustainable employment which will be at the heart of neighbourhood renewal.
5. Not just jobs, but jobs that pay and offer opportunities for progression, with an emphasis on sustaining and progressing in work to ensure all customers who need help to develop their skills have access to the relevant pre-employment and in-work training.