Final Report for the United Kingdom

Unemployment has stood out as a crucial and controversial issue in the UK. Long term and unskilled unemployed have assisted powerlessly to the continuous erosion of their welfare entitlements, with little prospect of finding work. The New Labour government has promoted significant reforms to the labour market in order to move more people from welfare to work. These include the working families’ tax credit, changes to the system of national contribution, a national minimum wage, and the New Deal, which started as a specific policy directed at young people, but was soon extended to older people, single parents and the disabled. The unemployment issue has thus attained high priority on the agenda of both mass media and public administration, especially during the first New Labour government, opening space for further involvement of civil society at large (...).Funded by the 5th Framework Programme of the European Commissio