Turning welfare into work

Contrary to what you might think, it is actually quite hard to find someone on benefits who doesn’t want to work. When you ask a claimant whether they would like to, they will invariably say “Yes, I want a job.” At first, this seems like a strange answer: why do we have nearly 6 million people on benefits when so many of them want to work? The answer is simple when you ask a few more questions: they don’t want just any job. They envisage doing what they used to do or would like to try – but aren’t willing to look for anything else.

Getting them to try any job in order to be in employment is the key issue for any party that wants to cut the welfare rolls. But this is really difficult for one reason in particular: the financial incentives to work are really low for anyone on benefits who can only hope for a job that pays the minimum wage.