Employer buy-in will be crucial to the success of the proposed welfare reform revealed by the government, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The recommendations for reform included in the Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity report include greater rewards for organisations that are successful in helping claimants find and stay in work.
A greater use of private and voluntary sector resources and expertise, so harder-to-help benefit claimants receive more employment support is also suggested by the report.

Long-term mentoring, greater personalisation of employment support, and cutting benefits were also recommended.

CIPD chief economist, Dr John Philpott, says: “We need more personalised one-to-one help for the core jobless while at the same time putting more pressure on them to make use of that help. However, in a jobs market where, as CIPD surveys find, a large proportion of employers are wary of recruiting from the ranks of long-term benefit claimants, more will also need to be done to bring employers on board. The ability of private and voluntary sector bodies to do so will ultimately determine the success of this next stage in the government’s welfare to work policy.”