Mixed results on employment retention
The Department for Work and Pensions has published research that estimates the impact of an Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) demonstration programme run by JobCentre Plus.
The ERA pilot combined post-employment advisory support and financial incentives to help low-income individuals sustain employment and advance in the labour market. Its outcomes were mixed:
- ERA produced short-term earnings gains for the two lone parent target groups (unemployed and part-time with Working Tax Credit), who were mostly women. The early gains resulted from increases in the proportion of participants who worked full time (at least 30 hours per week), which was a requirement to qualify for the employment retention bonus. These effects faded in the later years, after the programme ended.
- An earnings gain appears to have lasted longer among New Deal lone parents who were better educated, though initially unemployed. The report suggests that, compared with other unemployed lone parents, this group may have had more unrealised potential to succeed in work, which ERA may have tapped into.
- From a cost-benefit perspective, ERA did not produce encouraging results for the lone parent groups, with the exception of the better-educated subgroup.
- Despite its early impacts on earnings, there is little evidence that ERA affected overall well-being among the lone parent groups or the well-being of their children.
- For the long-term unemployed 25 years+ participants (mostly men), ERA produced modest but sustained increases in employment and substantial and sustained increases in earnings (12% above the control group). These positive effects emerged after the first year and were still evident at the end of the follow-up period. The report concludes this could mean up to £4 return for every £1 invested.
Find out more about the research from the DWP.
Find out more about work and worklessness in London.
Posted on 26 August 2011
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