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This report presents new findings on how an innovative post-employment program in Britain is affecting the employment, earnings and benefits receipt of long-term unemployed individuals. This initiative, called the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) demonstration program, is being carefully evaluated through a large-scale randomised control trial. ERA offered a unique combination of financial incentives and in-work support designed to help individuals sustain and advance in the labour market. The demonstration targeted three groups: unemployed lone parents, lone parents working part-time, and long-term unemployed individuals receiving government benefits. While a companion report [indexed at TD/TNC 94.119] presents effects for lone parents, this report focuses on the experiences of the long-term unemployed group, most of whom are men. An earlier evaluation report published in 2007 [indexed at TD/TNC 89.84], showed that, despite significant positive effects for lone parents, ERA's effects for the long-term unemployed group were mixed and uncertain after one year of follow-up. For this group, the program had shown no effects overall on employment or earnings but there were suggestions of positive effects in some districts. The new evidence presented here, covering two years of follow-up, continues to show that ERA's effects were limited. Although the program increased overall employment rates and reduced benefits receipt in year two, these effects were small. However, final assessment of ERA's effectiveness for this group must await longer-term follow-up.

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This report presents new findings on the implementation and effectiveness of Britain's Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) demonstration program, which is being evaluated though a large-scale randomised control trial. ERA's distinctive combination of post-employment advisory support and financial incentives was designed to help low-income individuals who entered work sustain employment and advance in the labour market. The analysis presented here focuses on the experiences of lone parents within the first two years following their entry onto the program.

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