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Wed 27-Feb-08 06:47 AM by Gareth Morgan
According to the Telegraph's web site today,
"Millions of benefit claimants will be forced back to work in the biggest shake-up of the welfare state for 60 years, ministers will announce.
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The proposals, to be announced by James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, represent the largest shake-up in the welfare state since it was established after the Second World War following the Beveridge Report of 1942.
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However, ministers now accept that more radical steps are needed. A Department for Work and Pensions source described the plan last night as "the way of delivering Beveridge for the 21st Century".
The source said: "We want to move to a situation where the private and voluntary sector are at the heart of delivering the flexible new deal and are paid by results.
"For the first time on welfare, we are saying the man in Whitehall does not know best when it comes to getting results. Specialist companies, who are the experts, will be rewarded for results. If they deliver, they keep the contract and they get paid. If they do not, another company can bid for it." This is similar to the American system in which sales teams compete to place candidates, with performance bonuses awarded to the most successful.
Mr Purnell has decided that the recommendations of Mr Freud should be implemented in full.
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Mr Purnell will tomorrow call for the private sector to "deliver a flexible and personalised approach for everyone". But in return it will have to deliver tougher targets.
He will unveil a "commissioning strategy" that will "change the rules of engagement" between the Government and the private companies charged with getting people back to work.
Contracts with the DWP are already worth £1 billion a year but the Work and Pensions Secretary wants even greater private sector involvement. He will say their involvement is "here to stay and set to grow".
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Key points:
Private companies to be offered up to £50,000 for finding unemployed people jobs for 18 months.
Lone parents to be forced to return to work when children are aged seven.
1·5 million of 3·5 million long-term benefit claimants to be helped back into work in total.
People refusing to co-operate and find a job will have benefits 'sliced'."
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