Welfare to work and the organisation of opportunity: lessons from abroad

Welfare to work policy is central to British reforms of its welfare state and social security system. We are not alone in our desire to assist unemployed and other claimants to find and retain work. It is therefore important to be able to look to other countries and consider lessons that could be drawn. Learning from abroad is a difficult and challenging exercise. While it is tempting to try and take the ‘best’ aspects of foreign policies and to bring them home, it is often dangerous to do so without a real appreciation of their context – not only their macro-economic and ideological foundations – but also their organisational basis. The core task of welfare to work programmes is to enable and encourage non-employed claimants of cash transfer programmes to work or to better prepare them for employment. The core of this report is a comparison of British, American, French, German and Dutch practices.