Reforming the United Kingdom's public employment and social security agencies

Abstract

The creation, during Labour's second term, of the Department for Work and Pensions and the new delivery agency Jobcentre Plus, was a significant reorganization of the administration of employment and social security policy. Drawing on Regulation theory the article argues that reform was structurally driven by the need to ensure delivery mechanisms aligned with Labour's vision of an `employment first' welfare state. The organization and objectives of the Employment Service and Benefits Agency that Labour inherited hindered moves to promote joined-up working to deliver employment opportunities for the economically inactive. To overcome this problem the Government embarked on a merger to break down the organizational, historical and cultural barriers that had separated the work of each agency. The administrative function of delivering social security and employment policy has been shaped into an active exponent of the Government's socioeconomic strategy for supporting an evolving neo-liberal regime of accumulation.