Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

Regional Social Strategy – the strategy to achieve social inclusion throughout the East of England
Some population groups are particularly at risk of social exclusion. These include: BME groups, people with
disabilities or mental health needs, lone parents, older people, carers, asylum seekers, refugees, migrant
workers, Gypsies and Travellers and ex-offenders.
In May 2007 the Government’s Welfare Reform Act received royal assent. It reinforced the commitment to
achieving an 80% employment rate and proposals relating to people claiming incapacity benefits, lone parents
and older workers became law. Achieving an 80% employment rate in the East of England would mean over
the next ten years reducing the number of people claiming incapacity benefits by 66,000 and the number of
lone parents claiming Income Support by 8,000. The Act also includes the introduction of a new benefit called
the Employment and Support Allowance, which will eventually replace Incapacity Benefit, and a simplified
form of Housing Benefit called the Local Housing Allowance.
An independent report to the DWP by David Freud, Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity: options
for the future of welfare to work, was published in January 2007. It looks at the Government’s challenge over
the next decade to meet their 80% employment aspiration, alongside delivering other social goals, including
most importantly the further reduction of child poverty, and sets out a number of recommendations regarding
those on Jobseeker’s Allowance, lone parents, those who are sick or disabled and how back-to-work support
is delivered. In July 2007 the DWP published its green paper In Work, Better Off: next steps to full
employment, which builds on the measures in the Welfare Reform Act, sets out the Government’s response
to David Freud’s report and reinforces the principle of rights matched to responsibilities, with work for those
who can and security for those who can’t.
For more detailed information regarding the region, visit the Regional Observatory at
www.eastofenglandobservatory.org.uk.
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