APPENDIX 4
Memorandum by The National Centre for
Volunteering
This paper is submitted on behalf of the Voluntary
Sector Welfare and Benefits Working Group to the joint inquiry
of the Social Security Committee and the Employment Sub-Committee
into the Single Work- focused Gateway (SWfG).
Summary
An introduction to the Welfare and Benefits Working
Group
Why Volunteering Matters—Volunteering is beneficial,
both to the individuals who volunteer and to society.
The principles of welfare reform—We welcome
the principle of work for those who can, security for those who
cannot and believe that voluntary activity can play an important
part in its development.
Volunteering and employability—Government research
shows that volunteering increases employability.
Promoting social inclusion—Volunteering helps
to promote social inclusion for those who cannot do paid work
in the short term.
The Single work focused Gateway
A one stop shop approach—the Government must
instruct its agencies to ensure that staff are properly trained
to provide clients with the right information about volunteering
issues.
Our Concerns
Front line staff: raising awareness of volunteering
in the job search process—steps must be taken to ensure
that staff are aware of the important contribution volunteering
makes to the job search process. The National Centre for Volunteering
has offered to broker training for Employment Service staff to
raise awareness of both the role volunteering plays in the job
search process and related benefits issues. The following have
been identified as particular issues of concern:
— Government agencies are not seen
as volunteer friendly
— Limits on hours worked
— Reimbursed expenses
— Therapeutic vs voluntary work
— Criminal records checks
The definition of "work": a cautionary
note—The SWfG exclusive focus on paid work may be seen as
devaluing worthwhile unpaid activities such as caring and volunteering.
Developing targets for sustainable employment—Targets
for sustainable employment would encourage officials at every
level to improve the overall employability of their clients promote
volunteering as a means to this end.
Suggestions
— Comprehensive staff training to ensure
that personal advisers made available to claimants under the SWfG
are aware of the contribution volunteering can make to claimants'
employability and increasing their likelihood of moving into paid
work.
— Employment Service and Benefits Agency
staff should be made aware of the benefits implications for claimants
who volunteer. They should never threaten volunteers with benefit
withdrawal because of their volunteer work.
— Development of indicators for sustainable
employment.
— Free criminal records checks for unemployed
people under the SWfG who wish to gain experience working with
vulnerable people.
The Single Work-focused Gateway (SWfG)
The Voluntary Sector Welfare and Benefits
Working Group (VSWBWG)
1. The VSWBWG was established in 1995 during the
introduction of Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA). Its members are drawn
from a selection of volunteer involving organisations representing
a broad range of voluntary activity in the UK. The Group works
with Government Departments and other agencies to ensure that
the concerns of volunteers, and volunteer involving organisations,
are represented in welfare and benefits policy and practice.
2. Member organisations have direct experience of
the welfare and benefits system acting as a significant factor
preventing unemployed people from volunteering. Therefore, we
believe that it is important to ensure that the difficulties faced
by unemployed volunteers when dealing with Government agencies
are overcome when the SWfG is introduced.
3. During his speech at the 1999 National Council
of Voluntary Organisations' (NCVO) Conference in January, the
Prime Minister acknowledged the important role that volunteering
will play in the battle against social exclusion. In return, he
recognised the Government's responsibility "to make it as
easy and attractive as possible for people to give (money and)
time". We believe that the introduction of the SWfG provides
the Government with the opportunity to put its ideals into practice.
Why Volunteering Matters
The Value of volunteering
4. Research shows that nearly half the population
volunteer1. Volunteering carried out both formally
(through volunteer-involving organisations) and more informally,
encompasses a wide range of activities—from sports, education
and social welfare to fundraising, organising events and committee
work and the provision of valuable services. As such, volunteering
is beneficial, both to the individuals who volunteer and to society.
It is estimated that the total economic value of voluntary activity
is 41 billion pounds2 as well as making a huge contribution
to the nation's quality of life. Volunteering also plays a key
role in developing social capital.
The Principles of Welfare Reform
5. The Government's proposals for welfare reform
rest on the principle of "work for those who can, security
for those who cannot". We support this ambitious project
and believe that voluntary activity can play an important part
in its success—both by improving employability and by promoting
social inclusion for those who are not in paid work.
Volunteering and employability
6. Volunteering is not simply a matter of "doing
one's duty to society" but also an activity that brings personal
benefits such as the chance to learn new skills, to acquire self-confidence
and even to gain qualifications—all invaluable in the search
for paid employment. There are also people who are not yet fit
for sustained, paid employment for whom unpaid work is a "stepping
stone" to the job market. As a recent Government publication
put it:
7. Can volunteering be a stepping stone to employment?
For those individuals who secured employment following a period
of voluntary work, the answer is an unequivocal "Yes"3.
Promoting inclusion
8. Volunteering can also be much more than just a
way into paid work. It is a chance to fight isolation by meeting
people and forming relationships; it is about gaining satisfaction
from a job well done, as well as earning the appreciation of clients,
paid colleagues and the community as a whole. This is particularly
important for people who have been unemployed for a long time
and those who will be unable to take paid employment in the short
term (for example because they are sick or have caring responsibilities).
The Single Work-focused Gateway
A one stop shop approach
9. There is much confusion among unemployed people,
not just in the variety of support services available to them,
but also in the information different agencies give them.
10. Within the statutory sector, even within some
Job Centres where it shares premises with the Employment Service,
it is the Benefits Agency that can have the most crucial impact
on unemployed volunteers. Almost every week the National Centre
for Volunteering help-line is told of one or more cases where
the Employment Service has allowed a client to sign on, only to
have Benefits Agency staff subsequently withhold benefit for reasons
that seem to us to be inappropriate.
11. We believe that the one stop shop approach should
help to ensure that claimants receive accurate, consistent advice
about opportunities for volunteering and the contribution it can
make to their employability. However, the Government must instruct
its agencies to ensure that staff are properly trained to provide
clients with the right information.
Our Concerns
Front line staff—raising awareness of volunteering
in the job search process
12. At senior levels, the Government has acknowledged
the important contribution volunteering makes to the job search
process—but measures must be taken to ensure that this message
gets down to front line staff. The following issues have been
noted by member organisations as particular causes for concern:
13. Government agencies are not seen as volunteer
friendly—Generally, unemployed volunteers do not perceive
government agencies to be places where volunteering is encouraged.
We believe that staff often see volunteering as at best irrelevant
to, and at worst in conflict with, the process of looking for
paid work. We also concerned that unemployed people are needlessly
being discouraged from volunteering by incidents of (or the fear
of) harassment by staff and/or loss of benefits.
14. The Benefits Agency has accepted that its guidelines
need revising and we have recently secured its agreement to consider
incorporating revised aspects into guidelines for staff.
15. Improved training—the National Centre for
Volunteering has offered to broker training for Employment Service
staff to raise awareness of both the role volunteering plays in
the job search process and related benefits issues.
16. Limits on hours worked—There is now (since
October 1998) no limit to the amount of time any benefit claimants
can volunteer. Unfortunately, some Employment Service/Benefits
Agency staff seem unaware of this and mistakenly apply to volunteering
the 16 hrs a week limit which relates to part time work or study.
17. Reimbursed expenses—Officially, "reasonable"
reimbursed expenses and the provision of accommodation and other
benefits in kind do not count as "income". However,
some Benefits Agency staff appear not to have picked this up and
volunteers are still being threatened with having their payments
stopped or reduced. In addition, the appeals process often takes
a long time during which volunteers cease volunteering altogether.
18. We will shortly be approaching Central Adjudication
Services (CAS) to ask for a generic ruling on reimbursed expenses.
We are also pursuing the matter with relevant Ministers.
19. Therapeutic vs voluntary work—Some people
who receive Incapacity Benefit are allowed to do paid therapeutic
work (subject to agreement from their doctor). They are allowed
to keep the first £58 they earn without losing any benefit.
Claimants have reported that staff sometime confuse income received
for therapeutic work with expenses relating to voluntary work
(the latter being excluded from Benefits Agency assessments of
income). Moreover unlike therapeutic work, voluntary work need
not contribute to improving a claimant's medical condition and
does not have to be approved by a GP.
20. Criminal records checks—Many people who
wish to pursue a career in care (for example childcare, nursing
etc) volunteer in order to gain useful experience and increase
their chances of obtaining paid work. Such volunteers will be
covered by the proposed system of criminal records checks for
those who work with vulnerable people.
21. Whilst supporting the introduction of checks,
volunteer organisations are concerned that the potential cost
(currently estimated at £10 per person) will discourage unemployed
people from volunteering. Therefore we reiterate the National
Centre for Volunteering position that volunteers should be exempt
from the fee. We believe that it is reasonable to allow claimants
entering the SWfG (who require a police check as an essential
step to improving their employability) to have their fee waived.
The definition of "work"—a cautionary
note
22. The SWfG focuses exclusively on helping claimants
to get paid work. By concentrating on activities which receive
remuneration through the labour market the Government appears
to be implicitly (if unintentionally) devaluing unpaid activity
such as caring, and voluntary work.
23. People of working age who are "economically
inactive" (in the sense that they are not currently participating
in the labour market) should not automatically be seen as passive
dependants—a drain on the nation's resources. Many people
who are unemployed in the conventional sense nevertheless do a
variety of socially useful tasks. As these activities take place
outside the formal economy they are often less visible, but they
are frequently both a valuable contribution to the social economy
and a hallmark of the "Active Citizenship" that the
government wishes to encourage.
Developing targets for sustainable employment
24. We are keen to promote sustainable employment
and believe that volunteering has a role in this process. Under
the JSA, Employment Service staff are given targets to encourage
them to obtain employment "placements" for claimants—but
these targets do not take account of the reliability and duration
of placements. This may encourage staff to persuade claimants
to take unsuitable, insecure employment so that they come off
JSA register only to find themselves back on benefits when the
placement does not work out.
25. By establishing performance targets for sustainable
employment, the Government would encourage officials at every
level to improve the overall employability of their clients. This
would enable claimants to stay off benefits longer, increasing
their chances of gaining long term independence from the state.
Unless and until this happens, we believe that measures to encourage
the use of volunteering as a tool for improving employability
will not be taken up.
26. We therefore welcome the recent use of statistics
to monitor the progress of claimants under the New Deal for Young
People. Employment Service Officials in the department for Education
and Employment have agreed to consult representatives of the VSWBSG
during the next review of Employment Service targets and we look
forward to further progress on this issue.
Recommendations
27. Volunteering has the potential to play an important
part in Government initiatives such as the "Giving Age"
and the battle against social exclusion. It is therefore important
to ensure that the problems we have identified (during the implementation
of the JSA) are overcome before the SWfG is introduced. As a result
we recommend the following measures:
28. Comprehensive staff training to ensure that personal
advisers made available to claimants under the SWfG are aware
of the contribution volunteering can make to claimants' employability
and increasing their likelihood of moving into paid work.
29. Employment Service and Benefits Agency should
be made aware of the benefits implications for claimants who volunteer.
They should never threaten volunteers with benefit withdrawal
because of their volunteer work.
30. Development of indicators for sustainable employment.
31. Free criminal records checks for unemployed people
under the SWfG who wish to gain experience working with vulnerable
people.
April 1999
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