This article lists British companies and charitable organisations that have participated in the British government's workfare programmes whereby individuals must work in return for unemployment benefits. Note that several companies, charities, public sector and third sector organisations have pulled out of workfare schemes as a result of negative publicity and as such inclusion on this list does not mean that a company currently uses workfare. Those involved in a specific version of workfare where this is known, have it listed after their names, while those known to have withdrawn altogether as of May 2019, are denoted by Withdrawn.
Help to Work was discontinued in stages in 2016 and 2017. "Traineeships" targeted unemployed young people.
Attempts to get the names of companies and charities who have participated in workfare have been the subject of a lengthy legal battle. In May 2013 the DWP lost a first tier tribunal case where it was ruled that the names of those who have participated in Mandatory Work Activity schemes should be released. [1] The fourth and final Appeal lodged by the DWP was thrown out in July 2016 and the lists of "placement providers" for the now defunct scheme Mandatory Work Activity revealed the names of 534 organisations. [2]
The anti-workfare organisation Boycott Workfare has compiled its own list of organisations that are known to have participated in DWP workfare schemes. "Defunct" denotes that a company has been liquidated and no longer exists having gone bankrupt and been dissolved, this includes "social enterprises" which are still commercial money-making enterprises.
The Solidarity Federation, also known by the abbreviation SolFed, is a federation of class struggle anarchists active in Britain. The organisation advocates a strategy of anarcho-syndicalism as a method of abolishing capitalism and the state, and describes itself as a "revolutionary union". In 1994 it adopted its current name, having previously been the Direct Action Movement since 1979, and before that the Syndicalist Workers' Federation since 1950.
The New Deal was a workfare programme introduced in the United Kingdom by the first New Labour government in 1998, initially funded by a one-off £5 billion windfall tax on privatised utility companies. The stated purpose was to reduce unemployment by providing training, subsidised employment and voluntary work to the unemployed. Spending on the New Deal was £1.3 billion in 2001.
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Shaw Trust is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom which supports people with complex needs into good work. It was founded in the village of Shaw in Wiltshire in 1982.
Sue Ryder is a British palliative, neurological and bereavement support charity based in the United Kingdom. Formed as The Sue Ryder Foundation in 1953 by World War II Special Operations Executive volunteer Sue Ryder, the organisation provides care and support for people living with terminal illnesses and neurological conditions, as well as individuals who are coping with a bereavement. The charity was renamed Sue Ryder Care in 1996, before adopting its current name in 2011.
The National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs (NFYFC) is a rural youth organisation in the United Kingdom. The Federation covers various Young Farmers' Clubs (YFCs) throughout England and Wales, helping support young people in agriculture and the countryside. It does not include YFCs from Scotland or Ireland.
Teach First is a social enterprise registered as a charity which aims to address educational disadvantage in England and Wales. Teach First coordinates an employment-based teaching training programme whereby participants achieve Qualified Teacher Status through the participation in a two-year training programme that involves the completion of a PGDE along with wider leadership skills training and an optional master's degree.
The British Youth Council, known informally as BYC, is a UK charity that works to empower young people and promote their interests. The national charity, run by young people, exists to represent the views of young people to government and decision-makers at a local, national, European and international level; and to promote the increased participation of young people in society and public life. It is partly funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and UK Parliament.
Work for the Dole is an Australian Government program that is a form of workfare, or work-based welfare. It was first permanently enacted in 1998, having been trialled in 1997. It is one means by which job seekers can satisfy the "mutual obligation requirements" to receive the Newstart Allowance, now replaced by the JobSeeker Payment. Other "mutual obligation" measures can include: accredited study, part-time work, Australian Army Reserves, and volunteer work.
The Coalfields Regeneration Trust is a registered charity that works across the former Coalfield communities of England, Wales and Scotland. The Charity was founded in 1999. The Coalfields Regeneration Trust receives funding from the Department of Communities and Local Government for their work in English communities, The Welsh Government for their Welsh activities and the Scottish Government to cover their Scottish work. The Trust runs a number of initiatives and activities that make things happen at a community level in Coalfield areas. Each Country sets its own strategic objectives in line with local priorities.
The New Year Honours 2008 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 29 December 2007, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2008.
Working Links was a British outsourcing subcontractor established in 2000 as a public, private and voluntary company that provided welfare services and help with employability. It was acquired by the investment group Aurelius in June 2016.
The Birthday Honours 2004 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 11 June 2004 for the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Cook Islands and elsewhere to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2004.
Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in supplements to the London Gazette and many are formally conferred by the monarch some time after the date of the announcement, particularly for those service people on active duty.
Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) was a workfare programme in the United Kingdom whereby individuals had to work for their benefits or risk being 'sanctioned' and losing them. MWA started in May 2011, but in November 2015 the DWP confirmed it was "not renewing" it. An academic analysis by the Department of Work and Pensions cast doubt on the effectiveness of MWA, and despite finding "little evidence" that workfare improved claimants gaining paid employment, the DWP ignored the findings of the study, and in June 2012, the scheme received a £5m expansion. A similar but little-known scheme 'Jobseeker Mandatory Activity' (JMA) was piloted by New Labour in 2006, but did not last beyond 2008. JMA targeted those claimants 25 and over, who had been unemployed for 6 months or more and made claimants liable to 'sanction' for non-compliance.
The sector-based work academy programme is a UK government scheme launched in 2013, which is intended to help create a skilled workforce in a business sector. Sector-based work academies help prepare people receiving unemployment benefits to apply for jobs in a new or different area of work. Work placements take place, which are designed to meet the business's immediate and future recruitment needs as well as to recruit a workforce with the right skills to sustain and grow the company's business. SWAP is administered by Jobcentre Plus and available in England and Scotland. A sector-based work academy can last for up to 6 weeks.
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 Work Programme (WP) was a UK government welfare-to-work programme introduced in Great Britain in June 2011. It was the flagship welfare-to-work scheme of the 2010–2015 UK coalition government. Under the Work Programme the task of getting the long-term unemployed into work was outsourced to a range of public sector, private sector and third sector organisations. The scheme replaced a range of schemes which existed under previous New Labour governments including Employment Zones, New Deal, Flexible New Deal and the now abolished Future Jobs Fund scheme which aimed to tackle youth unemployment. Despite being the flagship welfare-to-work scheme of the Conservative-led coalition government, and then the incumbent Conservative government from May 2015, the DWP announced, in November 2015, that it was replacing the Work Programme and Work Choice with a new Work and Health Programme for the longer-term unemployed and those with health conditions. The DWP also announced that it would not be renewing Mandatory Work Activity and Help to Work which included Community Work Placements.
Help to Work was a government workfare scheme in the United Kingdom for individuals who had not found work after two years on the Work Programme. Help to Work was the overall name for Community Work Placements and other intensified "activation" measures, and was launched at the start of 2014, but it was announced in November 2015, that the DWP was "not renewing" it. Referrals to Community Work Placements ended in March 2016, with contracts ending by October. All other referrals ended in March 2017.
The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development is awarded each year on 21 April by Queen Elizabeth II, along with the other two Queen's Awards for Enterprise categories.