At a time of economic uncertainty and weaker recruitment, persuading employers to hire more people from the benefit roll could prove an uphill task. |
It is a simplification of the system but the detail is still unclear. The only certainty is that in the short term it will produce more work for employment lawyers. |
Overcoming employer resistance to hiring long-term IB claimants may require greater use of direct financial incentives to employers, such as the offer of recruitment subsidies or low cost work trials for claimants. |
Such low expectations may or may not be unfair. But either way, they pose a problem for the government. |
The government will have to ensure that its welfare-to-work measures do as much as possible to engage employers and encourage them to recruit people. |
This may be the only realistic approach, and is anyway a major improvement on the current system, but it will nonetheless disappoint those who might be expecting an immediate improvement in the job prospects of most existing claimants. |