Ingold, J orcid.org/0000-0001-8088-8262 (2020) Employers' perspectives on benefit conditionality in the UK and Denmark. Social Policy and Administration, 54 (2). pp. 236-249. ISSN 0144-5596
Abstract
This article examines the under‐explored demand‐side of active labour market policies (ALMPs). Based on interview data from a comparative study of the UK and Denmark, the paper analyses employers' perspectives and experiences of ALMPs. In both countries, employers were favourably disposed towards employing unemployed jobseekers but held negative views on conditionality. First, benefit conditionality led to employers receiving large numbers of unsuitable and unfiltered job applications, with associated negative resource impacts. Second, employers perceived this as a product of ‘box ticking' and compliance targets. Finally, employers criticised policy and media rhetoric for focusing solely on the supply‐side and for problematizing unemployed candidates. The paper argues that these crucial, but neglected, employer perspectives demonstrate that the current benefit conditionality regime in the UK risks irrevocably ‘tarnishing' candidates, which undermines, rather than enhances, their chances of securing employment through ALMPs. This unique dataset provides further evidence that the current direction of policy requires urgent and radical re‐thinking.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Author. Social Policy & Administration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | active labour market policy; conditionality; employers; public employment service |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Work and Employment Relation Division (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) ES/K008617/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 18 Sep 2019 10:47 |
Last Modified: | 30 May 2023 22:33 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/spol.12552 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:150978 |