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Policy Framework
Until recently, employment policy in the United Kingdom has focused principally on helping people who lose their jobs to find work. Although some government-sponsored measures were available to help those on the margins of employment retain their jobs and improve their earnings, there has been less support for people once they have found jobs. The launch of the United Kingdom's Employment Retention and Advancement demonstration (UK ERA) marks a new direction in Britain’s evolving welfare-to-work and antipoverty policies toward developing services that aim to improve job retention and career advancement prospects for Britain’s low-wage workforce. (UK ERA will have many parallels with the U.S.-based Employment Retention and Advancement project that MDRC is evaluating for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
Operated by the British government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), UK ERA represents one of only a few, and by far the largest, random assignment demonstration projects ever conducted in the United Kingdom. UK ERA services will be directed at individuals in three distinct low-income groups known to have difficulty retaining a job or advancing to better positions:
- The long-term unemployed (mostly men)
- Lone parents on income support (mostly women)
- Lone parents working part time and receiving the Working Tax Credit (akin to the Earned Income Tax Credit in the United States)
The program will offer a combination of services and financial incentives that will last for as long as two years after participants enter work.
- Under UK ERA, new employment specialists, called Advancement Support Advisors, will work with job developers to offer participants ongoing advice and assistance intended to help them overcome obstacles to steady employment and find pathways toward better job opportunities and wage progression. The advisors will refer participants who wish to enhance their skills while employed to occupational training organizations. Participants who need extra help to address personal problems that are hindering their success in the labor market will be referred to social service agencies.
- The financial incentives include a retention bonus for participants who remain stably employed in full-time work. It will be paid three times per year in increments of about $600, up to a maximum total award of $3,600. Participants who combine training with employment will be eligible to receive a training bonus and tuition assistance, each up to about $1,500.
An underlying objective of UK ERA is to spark knowledge transfer that will build capacity in the UK to conduct future random assignment social experiments, a goal MDRC expects to accomplish through its close working relationship with its consortium partners and with DWP policy, program, and research staff.
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
UK ERA will be implemented in six regions of the country (four in England, and one each in Scotland and Wales) within Jobcentre Plus agencies, the new institutions that run Britain’s recently merged benefit and employment services systems. The evaluation will use a random assignment research design in which the experiences of low-income adults participating in UK ERA programs will be compared with those of low-income adults who receive services available under existing public programs. Drawing on an extensive body of qualitative data, administrative records, client and staff surveys, and fiscal information, researchers will analyze the implementation, impacts, and costs and benefits of UK ERA in each district.
Also as part of the project, and another first for an evaluation undertaken in the UK, a team of technical advisors has been hired to assist in the operations of the demonstration. They will be responsible for helping each of the demonstration sites implement high-quality programs that adhere to the UK ERA program model and for ensuring that sites properly execute the procedures for random assignment.
What's Next
Random assignment began in October 2003, and the evaluation will run through 2007. Depending on early findings and subject to the availability of funding, UK ERA may be extended to 2010.
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