Final Report for the United Kingdom
Abstract
Unemployment has stood out as a crucial and controversial issue in the UK. Long term and
unskilled unemployed have assisted powerlessly to the continuous erosion of their welfare
entitlements, with little prospect of finding work. The New Labour government has promoted
significant reforms to the labour market in order to move more people from welfare to work.
These include the working families’ tax credit, changes to the system of national contribution,
a national minimum wage, and the New Deal, which started as a specific policy directed at
young people, but was soon extended to older people, single parents and the disabled. The
unemployment issue has thus attained high priority on the agenda of both mass media and
public administration, especially during the first New Labour government, opening space for
further involvement of civil society at large (...).
Domains
Political science
Origin : Publisher files allowed on an open archive