The role of the UK Public Employment Service in job brokerage and activation strategies

The United Kingdom has a long tradition of activation policies to promote the quick reintegration of working-age benefit recipients. Job-search requirements for claimants of unemployment benefits can be traced back to the late 1980s and a standard way of monitoring job-search efforts through fortnightly job-search review meetings was introduced with the JSA regime in 1996. From the early 2000s, activation measures were introduced for claimants of lone parent and incapacity benefits. From 2008, access to lone parent and fully-inactive incapacity benefits was significantly restricted and caseloads fell more rapidly. The United Kingdom continues to be at the forefront of reform efforts by OECD countries to transform and modernise their activation policies. This chapter identifies a number of areas where consideration should be given to additional measures or adjustments to existing ones.