"In place of welfare", intoned Gordon Brown promisingly in his first budget as chancellor of the exchequer in 1997, "there should be work." Efforts to get Britons off benefits and into employment have been fitful since then. But most of the reforms-such as the New Deal, a "work-fare" scheme launched a decade ago, Job-centre Plus, a new kind of dole office focused on helping claimants find jobs, and the introduction of various in-work benefits-at least enjoyed the tailwind generated by a booming economy.rnNow, with unemployment rising, some worry about the timing of the latest round of reforms. On November 21st Sir Richard Tilt, the chairman of the social-security advisory committee, a statutory body, called for changes to benefits for jobless single parents to be delayed. On November 24th, single parents whose youngest child is aged 12 or over began to be shifted over to job-seeker's allowance, a benefit that requires the recipient to be looking actively for employment. That age cut-off is scheduled to fall further, to ten years in 2009, and seven in 2010. Previously, lone parents were able to claim income support until their youngest child reached 16.
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机译：戈登·布朗（Gordon Brown）在1997年担任财政大臣时，在他的第一笔预算中就充满希望地说：“应该代替福利”，“应该有工作”。从那时起，使英国人摆脱福利并获得就业的努力是适当的。但是大多数改革，例如新政（十年前启动的“工作津贴”计划），Job-centre Plus（一种旨在帮助索赔人找到工作的新型救济办公室），以及各种工作方式的引入。福利-至少享受了经济蓬勃发展所带来的顺风。现在，随着失业率上升，一些人担心最新一轮改革的时机。 11月21日，法定机构社会保障咨询委员会主席理查德·提尔特爵士（Sir Richard Tilt）呼吁推迟对失业单身父母的福利进行变更。 11月24日，年龄最小的12岁或12岁以上的单亲父母开始转向求职者津贴，这项福利要求接受者积极寻找工作。该年龄的截止日期预计将进一步下降，分别在2009年和2010年分别降至10岁和7岁。以前，单亲父母可以要求收入支持，直到他们最小的孩子达到16岁为止。
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