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The aim of the study is to explore the impact of on-going welfare changes on a range of households in Scotland over time. This report provides the findings from the first year of the study by presenting results from the first two sweeps of interviews. Sweep 1 took place from September 2013 to January 2014 and sweep 2 took place from .April 2014 to July 2014\ud \ud The research is concerned with those in receipt of working age benefits and addresses the impact of the current benefit reforms and new rules including the Benefit Cap; the 'bedroom tax'; changes to lone parents’ obligations; the changeover from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payments (PIP); and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The research also addresses participants’ views on about the move to Universal Credit.\ud \ud Forty three individuals took part in sweep 1 of the research and 35 individuals took part in sweep 2, each with different reasons for claiming benefits. Participants were recruited to the study from across Scotland, including rural and urban areas and the major cities, and had a range of demographic and other characteristics.

The aim of the study is to explore the impact of on-going welfare changes on a range of households in Scotland over time. This report provides a review of the literature and presents the results of the first sweep of interviews which took place from September 2013 to January 2014. The study is being carried out for the Scottish Government by the Employment Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Stirling.\ud \ud The research is concerned with those in receipt of working age benefits and addresses the impact of the current benefit reforms and new rules including the Benefit Cap; changes made to the payment of Housing Benefit (HB) relating to under-occupancy; changes to lone parents’ obligations when their youngest child reaches the age of five; Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and the forthcoming changeover to Personal Independence Payments (PIP); and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The research also addresses participants’ opinions about the move to Universal Credit (UC), including a shift to monthly payments, and the move towards making all claims through an online system.\ud \ud The research utilises a longitudinal qualitative methodology, so that participants’ experiences of the changes can be followed and understood across time. Forty three individuals have taken part in the research, each with different reasons for claiming benefits. Participants were recruited to the study from across Scotland, including rural and urban areas and the major cities, and had a range of demographic and other characteristics.\ud \ud At the time of writing, some changes to welfare benefits have been implemented, while others are underway. All changes, including the transition to UC1 , are expected to be implemented by 2017. The literature to date indicates a number of problems pertaining to the reforms. Other factors, not directly related to welfare per se, that impact on those claiming benefits are also important, such as the availability of transport and suitable employment opportunities.

This paper considers the experiences from nine in-depth case studies (undertaken as part of the “WorkAble” project) examining the transitions of (disadvantaged) young people: from compulsory school to further education; from education/vocational training to the labour market; and from unemployment/outside the labour market to employment. It considers two key issues related to using the Capability Approach as a central conceptual guide in the design of in-depth qualitative research. First, how to operationalise the Capability Approach in the methodology, an issue around which there is considerable debate in the literature in particular how to measure capabilities and which capabilities to measure. Second, how to conduct research that is comparable, but is also adaptable to the particular social and institutional contexts of the nine different nations. Specific issues related to the operationalisation of the Capability Approach, encountered when conducting the cross-country in-depth case studies, are highlighted; and debates from the capabilities literature discussed.

This study is shaped by the recognition that while there has been a great deal of policy development around the transition from unemployment and inactivity to employment over the last decade, policy has not been sufficiently informed about how best to nurture sustainable employment for those at risk of labour market exclusion. The review focused on evidence from 2005: it provides a review of data, UK and international literature and, incorporates findings from four international case studies ( Australia, Germany, Denmark and the United States. The report provides an overview of the economic context for low pay and low skilled work and highlights the need for a continuing commitment to promoting opportunities in the labour market as a means of progression and alleviating poverty and encouraging social mobility. The report argues that there is an inextricable link between skills and ‘better jobs’. The authors conclude that a long-term view is required to decide how best to support someone at the point of worklessness: to address employability barriers in the short-term; and prepare the individual to retain, and progress in, employment. The concept of career is explored as a framework for progression: a combination of career guidance, a career / personal development plan and career management skills are identified as tools to raise aspiration and enable individual’s to take action once they are in work to support their own progression. Thinking about the workplace, the report reviews the evidence on the role of job design, line management and progression pathways in facilitating workplace learning as a route to progression.

In the UK a significant number of young people do not make successful transitions into further education, training or employment on leaving school, which has been exacerbated further by the current economic crisis. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interview data, this paper examines two Third sector programmes in the UK that can be seen moving away from ‘work-first’ employment activation and focusing instead on promoting the individual capabilities of disadvantaged, unemployed youth in finding work. When this move is considered through a capability approach perspective, questions are raised about the voice of young people, as their aspirations can be limited because of the social contexts in which they live. It is argued that enabling unemployed youth to choose the work that they have reason to value cannot be achieved without taking into account the importance of the external context; and so while young people’s choices may be developed through providing role models etc. it is still a choice shaped and restrained by the context of wider labour markets and education and training opportunities; and the personal and social barriers that inhibit young people from entering work.

This chapter introduces the nine case studies, the common question framework used and the different methodologies adopted. The aim of the case studies is to examine the tran of disadvantaged young people from compulsory school to further education, from education/vocational training to the labour market and from being unemployed/sitions outside the labour market into employment. They also look at examples of education and employability programmes that may support young people in these transitions in order help us understand the trajectories from school to work from a capability approach.