Conditionality and the financing of employment services - implications for the social divisions of work and welfare

Increasing conditionality in access to welfare has been central to the reform of welfare states (Dean 2004; Dwyer 2004) and to the development of welfare-to-work policies and programmes (Peck 2001). This article addresses the ways in which the reform of employment services has, likewise, been marked by increasing conditionality in the financing of a market of those services. This form of conditionality involves the obligation of contracted providers to achieve employment outcomes as a condition of funding. The article examines how conditionality in the financing of employment services impacts on the provision of services to unemployed groups, and more disadvantaged groups in particular, and the implications for the social divisions of work and welfare.