List of British organisations who have participated in workfare programmes

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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in a specific version of workfare where this is known, have it listed after their names, while those known to have withdrawn altogether as of May 2019, are denoted by Withdrawn.

Contents

Help to Work was discontinued in stages in 2016 and 2017. "Traineeships" targeted unemployed young people.

Freedom of Information challenge

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]

Boycott Workfare list

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.

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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.

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References

  1. "Workfare placements must be made public, tribunal rules". TheGuardian.com . 19 May 2013.
  2. "Department for Work and Pensions names charities providing "workfare"".
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