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Return-to-Work Policies in the United States, Great Britain and France This article analyses the political origins of the second wave of welfare reform includes policies designed and implemented in the early 2000s. The reforms investigated are the reform of the Minimum Insertion Income (Revenu Minimum d’Insertion) in France (2003); the White House ‘Working Towards Independence’ proposal, which strengthens current work requirements for welfare recipients in the USA (2002); and proposals for getting people on Disability Benefits back into the labor force in Britain (2002-2004). Despite their divergences, these reforms implement a stricter conditionality regime for welfare recipients because governments have become increasingly convinced about the need to reduce ‘joblessness’. Their other point in common is that relatively tight welfare policy communities composed of political appointees played a crucial role in the promotion of a new workfare agenda in the early 2000s.