The Jobcentre Plus has been hailed by the DWP Select Committee as a success story thanks to good management and most importantly the high levels of experience at the top and the involvement of local ground staff in shaping the changes.
Edward Leigh MP was “keen to highlight the critical part played by the senior management team who, he said, had over 100 years of front line experience in the agency’s business
Stephen Timms MP, Minister for employment echoed these praises and went further to state: “Their work will be held up as a model of exemplary good practice for all public sector organisations”
The idea of government developing strategies based on first hand experience is something LinksUK have been pushing, check out our previous blog article on developing a sounding board for Benefit reform.
Yesterday the Marketing giant Leo Burnett won the DWP contract for the Anti Benefit Fraud Campaign. They will be responsible for a three to five-year communications strategy, tackling benefit fraud by encouraging more people to get into and stay in work. There will be a focus on changing people’s attitudes to employment and highlighting the personal value of work.
This implies that many people do not see the value of working; it implies contentment for a life on benefits. Yet as I speak to local people I find the worst thing about their life is being trapped on benefit
One lady recently told me “I am not just a statistic, I am a person with ambitions but a system that removes choice and control from my life and creates fear keeps me where I am, trapped. And of course I will do a bit of cash in hand work now and then, in times of unexpected and un-budgeted expense, such as school trips or birthdays.”
Hopefully Stephen Timms really means what he says and uses the experiences of people committing benefit fraud to understand the motives behind their actions. A blog entry I came across today eloquently illustrates such motives and stresses how people act out of need not greed, to deal with debt and poverty issues. I reiterate the words at the end of the blog:
Hopefully the new DWP campaign think beyond greed and will consider motives driven by need.
To share views/experiences or for more information do get in touch (maeve.mcgoldrick@community-links.org) and hear more about our Need Not Greed campaign!
