The Freud Report on the future of welfare to work: Some critical reflections

In December 2006 the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced a review of welfare to work policies in Britain. This was led by the investment banker, David Freud who reported in March 2007. This paper examines the report, particularly focusing upon broad issues - relationships between unemployment, worklessness and capitalism and gender issues - that are central to understanding the report's analysis and recommendations. It is argued that the report's general thrust dovetails neatly with New Labour's fixation with supply- side economics and its approach to exclusion that suggests paid work is the mark of the responsible and included individual, an approach that draws upon and reproduces capitalist and patriarchal patterns and structures of paid work.