Volunteering and employability: exploring the link for incapacity benefit recipients

A Corden; A. W. Ellis

Volunteering and employability: exploring the link for incapacity benefit recipients

A Corden, A. W. Ellis

Social Policy Research Unit

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The current labour government has been keen to stress the role of volunteering and active citizenship as a means of escaping social exclusion. At the same time, the government emphasises unemployment as a root cause of social exclusion and encourages people to volunteer as a route into paid work. Discusses the evidence for links between volunteering and employability for incapacity benefits recipients. There is mixed evidence as to whether voluntary work acts as a direct route to paid work. For some people, volunteering can increase personal assets to offer employers, such as confidence, social skills and experience gained in a work environment. However, cultural stereotypes of people who do voluntary work may limit identification of such opportunities. Disabled people may face a number of barriers to taking part. Argues that focusing too much on the role of volunteering as a route to paid work for incapacity benefits recipients fails to recognise the potential value of volunteering in enhancing quality of life and human capital.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	112-118
Number of pages	7
Journal	Benefits
Volume	12
Issue number	2
Publication status	Published - 2004

Keywords

employment/benefits
ill/disabled adults

Cite this

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title = "Volunteering and employability: exploring the link for incapacity benefit recipients",

abstract = "The current labour government has been keen to stress the role of volunteering and active citizenship as a means of escaping social exclusion. At the same time, the government emphasises unemployment as a root cause of social exclusion and encourages people to volunteer as a route into paid work. Discusses the evidence for links between volunteering and employability for incapacity benefits recipients. There is mixed evidence as to whether voluntary work acts as a direct route to paid work. For some people, volunteering can increase personal assets to offer employers, such as confidence, social skills and experience gained in a work environment. However, cultural stereotypes of people who do voluntary work may limit identification of such opportunities. Disabled people may face a number of barriers to taking part. Argues that focusing too much on the role of volunteering as a route to paid work for incapacity benefits recipients fails to recognise the potential value of volunteering in enhancing quality of life and human capital.",

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AB - The current labour government has been keen to stress the role of volunteering and active citizenship as a means of escaping social exclusion. At the same time, the government emphasises unemployment as a root cause of social exclusion and encourages people to volunteer as a route into paid work. Discusses the evidence for links between volunteering and employability for incapacity benefits recipients. There is mixed evidence as to whether voluntary work acts as a direct route to paid work. For some people, volunteering can increase personal assets to offer employers, such as confidence, social skills and experience gained in a work environment. However, cultural stereotypes of people who do voluntary work may limit identification of such opportunities. Disabled people may face a number of barriers to taking part. Argues that focusing too much on the role of volunteering as a route to paid work for incapacity benefits recipients fails to recognise the potential value of volunteering in enhancing quality of life and human capital.

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