Millions of unemployed Brits will LOSE benefits if they refuse jobs & training in Labour plan announced today
MILLIONS of Brits will lose their benefits if they refuse to take up work and training opportunities under Labour’s welfare shake-up.
Ministers will today unveil a £240million plan to tackle unemployment and spiralling levels of economic inactivity.
While unemployment stands at almost 1.5 million, economic inactivity has also soared to more than nine million, with 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness – a major driver of the rise in joblessness since the pandemic.
During the election, Labour promised to increase the employment rate to 80 per cent from its current level of around 75 per cent, which would mean around two million more people in work.
The Get Britain Working White Paper includes a shake-up of Jobcentres, transforming them into a National Jobs and Careers Service offering tailored support to help people find and keep jobs.
Mental health services will get a boost, and extra NHS capacity will be deployed to tackle waiting lists in areas with high inactivity.
A £40million Growth and Skills Levy will also be introduced to make the Apprenticeship Levy more flexible, opening up better education and training opportunities for young people.
And a Youth Guarantee will offer access to education, training, and employment opportunities to under-22s.
Welfare Secretary Liz Kendall made clear this weekend those who refuse to take up the offer will be stripped of their handouts.
But jobseekers who repeatedly fail to engage can already be sanctioned, and how exactly the carrot and stick will work won’t be set out until the Spring.
Ms Kendall said: “To get Britain growing, we need to get Britain working again.
“Our reforms will break down barriers to opportunity, help people to get into work and on at work, allow local leaders to boost jobs and growth, and give our children and young people the best opportunities to get on in life.”
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Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately accused ministers of having had “dodged the difficult decisions” on sickness benefits and that the announcement was “nothing more than rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic”.
She said: “This latest announcement shows that Labour are not prepared to take the tough but necessary choices to bring down the benefits bill.
“There is no attempt to match the £12 billion in welfare savings we promised in our manifesto. They have even dodged the difficult decisions on sickness benefits, which are needed to make the welfare system sustainable in the long term.
“To get people off benefits, you also need jobs for them to go to. But Labour’s disastrous anti-growth Budget is already making businesses think twice about taking people on.”
Rachel Reeves‘ Budget last month contained almost no measures on welfare, with ministers promising more detail in today’s White Paper.
The Chancellor only said Labour would stick to the Tories’ plans to reduce the welfare bill by £3 billion over five years.
Under the previous government, welfare eligibility would have been tightened so around 400,000 more people signed off long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for work by 2028/29 to deliver the savings.
But in Labour’s back-to-work plan, ministers only pledged to launch a consultation on “measures to overhaul the health and disability benefits system” in spring.
Sir Keir said the white paper would “put an end to the culture of blaming and shaming people who for too long haven’t been getting the support they need to get back to work.
“From the broken NHS, flatlining economy, and the millions of people left unemployed and trapped in an inactivity spiral, this Government inherited a country that simply isn’t working,” he said.
“But today we’ve set out a plan to fix this. A plan that tackles the biggest drivers of unemployment and inactivity and gives young people their future back through real, meaningful change instead of empty rhetoric and sticking plaster politics.”