Treatment, recovery and employment – Findings demonstrate that engagement with and completion of treatment is an important first step on the route to employment. However it is recovery (involving the resolution of other life issues and stresses such as housing problems) rather than treatment completion that is a key component of coming off benefits and securing employment. Interventions and policies need to recognise this distinction. A recovery allowance involving a relaxation of benefit conditionality that could be accessed by those who are undertaking or have recently completed a treatment course for alcohol or drug addiction would assist individuals in focusing on recovery and moving forward with more confidence and less fear of financial hardship.
A step-wise approach starting with voluntary work, part-time work or work experience to provide a gradual reintegration to the workplace, and ensuring that individuals are better off in work than they would be on benefits, would help this group make the transition to employment.
Further evidence is needed around longer-term employment outcomes from programmes, and the role that abstinence plays in helping those leaving treatment to gain and sustain employment.
Additional support from Jobcentre Plus staff – Alcohol misusers face a number of barriers to both accessing appropriate benefits and moving off them and into employment, and some reported feeling that they didn’t receive the support they felt they needed from Jobcentre Plus staff . They would benefit from better access to those with specialist knowledge in order to negotiate the benefit system. A caseloading system in which alcohol misusing customers see the same Jobcentre Plus adviser every time they visit may help to improve the experience for this group by removing the need for them to repeat often sensitive and difficult personal information to different advisers.
Mandation to treatment – The literature suggests that the receipt of benefits does not encourage or increase alcohol dependency. Alcohol misuse can cause unemployment which may result in being on benefits, but it is not the benefit receipt in itself that causes or escalates alcohol misuse. In our view there is inadequate evidence from either the literature or qualitative research that making treatment a condition of benefit receipt would improve treatment outcomes for clients or result in more alcohol misusers re-entering employment.
Interagency working – One of the clearest findings from our study is that interagency working can result in better support for adults with alcohol misuse problems and better access to future training and employment opportunities. The clients interviewed in our study expressed frustration about having to deal with multiple agencies and individuals and having to provide the same information repeatedly. They also reported that Jobcentre Plus staff were not always responsive to their needs, particularly when these were related to substance misuse. The professionals we interviewed also identified a need for benefit and employment advice for their clients in the context of some understanding of alcohol misuse. One model for increasing interagency working would be the introduction of Jobcentre Plus outreach sessions in treatment provider premises.
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