The use of the Discretionary Social Fund across families : evidence from the Expenditure and Food Surveys

The Centre for Research in Social Policy has been commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to research the current role and future direction of the Social Fund. The research is focused on the discretionary Social Fund. This is one of two quantitative working papers produced as part of this research. This working paper is based on a secondary analysis of the Expenditure and Food Surveys and examines families’ use of the discretionary Social Fund. The other working paper uses data from the Family Resources Survey to examine Social Fund receipt (Legge, 2006)

Britain's poorest children revisited : evidence from the BHPS (1994-2002)

This is a follow-up to an earlier study of Britain’s poorest children (Adelman et al., 2003), carried out by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) on behalf of Save the Children UK (SCUK). The earlier analysis had used two data sets: the Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey (PSE) of 1999; and the first nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) covering the period 1991-1999. The policy impact of the earlier analysis has been widespread, and the need for continued work on Britain’s poorest children is apparent. Three further waves of the BHPS (2000-2002) have since become available, making it possible to update the earlier analysis of the BHPS using more recent data sets. Hence, this study uses the nine most recent waves of the BHPS available (1994-2002) to update the earlier work on Britain’s poorest children, focusing on key issues of particular policy significance

Severe child poverty in the UK

This report contains the findings of a technical study, which aimed to identify a measure of severe child poverty that can discriminate between the experiences of children defined as severely poor and other children

The Social Fund - current role and future direction

This report considers the role of the discretionary Social Fund in combating poverty and possible reforms to the scheme. It is mainly based upon secondary analysis of the Family Resources Survey and the Expenditure and Food Survey and qualitative research with benefit recipients: both discretionary Social Fund applicants and nonapplicants, and people from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. Participants in the qualitative research discussed times of particular financial hardship, experiences of the Social Fund and possible reforms to the Social Fund

The public sector and equality for disabled people

This report presents findings of a study of public bodies’ approach to implementing the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and provides evidence for a baseline against which to assess the extent to which the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 prompts authorities to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people

New Deal for Disabled People : survey of registrants – report of Cohort 3

The New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP) was implemented nationally in July 2001. It is a voluntary programme that aims to help people on incapacity benefits move into sustained employment. NDDP is delivered by a national network of local Job Brokers comprising public, private and voluntary sector providers of varying types and levels of work-focused support and assistance. The evaluation design for the programme includes a Survey of the Registrants, which aims to obtain information on NDDP participant characteristics, their experiences of, and views on, the programme. The survey involves three cohorts, with the first two having two waves of interviewing and the third one wave. This report is of the third cohort. The survey for the third cohort entailed face-to-face Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) interviews with people who were registered between August and October 2004 as NDDP participants on the Evaluation Database. The sample was stratified by whether or not registrants were within Pathways to Work pilot areas and whether they had registered with new or existing Job Brokers. Disproportionately large numbers of those within Pathways areas and those with new brokers were sampled to allow robust analysis of these groups. The survey fieldwork was conducted between February and May 2005. After the opt-out process, and after identifying those out of scope, the field response rate was 77 per cent. The 2,531 interviews achieved represent an overall response rate of 64 per cent. Where the respondent had a partner living in their household, and the partner was available, a short interview with the partner was also conducted. If the partner was unavailable for interview it was possible for the interviewer to conduct the interview by proxy (with the respondent on behalf of the partner)

Evaluation of the Adult Learning Grant Cohort 1 (Waves 1 and 2)

There has been a significant change in the locus of job growth within the UK over the past two decades, with managerial, professional and technical occupations experiencing the highest growth rates. Expansion in these sectors has been accompanied by demands for higher levels of skills and qualifications from the workforce, a trend which is predicted to continue. The Skills Strategy White Paper1 has been central in setting out the Government’s aims to ensure that employers have a workforce with the right skills to support their businesses and that individuals have the skills they need to be both employable and personally fulfilled. The Adult Learning Grant (ALG) was announced as part of the Government’s Skills Strategy in 2003. The ALG pilot began in September 2003 in ten areas across England. The ALG aims to support adults in learning through the offer of a meanstested monetary allowance. The allowance is subject to strict eligibility criteria and award relies on learners demonstrating that they meet criteria relating to UK residency, age, proposed course of study, level of prior qualifications, and that they intend to study at a designated learning provider. The grant is targeted at full-time adult learners studying for their first full Level 2 qualification and full-time learners aged 19-30 years studying for their first full Level 3 qualification. The grant is administered by one provider, Manchester City Council (MCC)

New Deal for Disabled People: third synthesis report - key findings from the evaluation

The New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP) is the major national employment programme available to people claiming incapacity-related benefits, and it is an important part of the Government's welfare to work strategy. NDDP is a voluntary programme that provides a national network of Job Brokers to help people with health conditions and disabilities move into sustained employment. This synthesis report highlights key findings from a large-scale, comprehensive and multi-method evaluation of NDDP. It covers the programme over the period July 2001 to November 2006 and is based on all of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published evaluation reports on NDDP as well as analysis of administrative data using the DWP NDDP database. The findings also include a wealth of information pertaining to more general issues around employment of disabled people, beyond the NDDP programme itself, and are therefore of substantial interest to future policy development in this area