This chapter examines the changes and continuities in the areas of unemployment benefits, employment protection legislation, active labour market policies, training and human capital formation, and needs-based social protection for the unemployed in the United Kingdom. A number of significant welfare reforms driven by the aim of deficit reduction since 2010 led to increasing labour market flexibility and less income protection despite growing problems of precariousness. Many training programmes have been redefined either as a work test or turned into an opportunity for employers to undercut existing employment protection legislation and the minimum wage. Rather than being a turning point, the crisis led to a continuation of policies that further retrenched social investment-type policies that were already weak to begin with.
Retrenchment, conditionality and flexibility – UK labour market policies in the era of austerity
