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UK Government announces plans to ‘get Britain working again’

26 Nov 2024 4 minute read
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall. Photo Jacob King/PA Wire

Places with the highest levels of joblessness will get extra NHS support as the Government bids to “get Britain working again”.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall will announce the plans on Tuesday as part of wide-ranging reforms designed to tackle economic inactivity and deliver the Government’s promise to bring more than two million people back into work.

She 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.

“The Get Britain Working White Paper shows that this Government stands unashamedly for work. We will make sure everyone, regardless of their background, age, ethnicity, health, disability or postcode can benefit from the dignity and purpose work can bring.”

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% from its current level of around 75%, which would mean around two million more people in work.

As well as providing extra capacity to cut waiting lists at the 20 NHS trusts with the highest levels of economic inactivity, Ms Kendall’s plans will see an expansion of mental health support and efforts to tackle obesity.

Alongside the focus on improving health, the Government’s plans will see Jobcentres replaced by a new National Jobs and Careers Service.

Backed by £55 million, the new system is expected to have a greater focus on helping people back into work rather than monitoring benefit claims.

Training

Other policies include providing additional employment and training opportunities for young people and extra powers for mayors to develop their own employment plans.

Tackling economic inactivity, which has risen by 600,000 people since the pandemic, is seen as vital to both boosting economic growth and reducing a spiralling welfare bill that threatens to demand more resources from the Treasury.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “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.

“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.”

Sir Keir added that the Government’s reforms 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” and help people into “decent, well-paid jobs”.

But Ms Kendall also made clear that the Government expected those who were able to work to take up those opportunities.

Referring to the policies of the last Labour government, she told broadcasters on a visit to Peterborough: “We said there was no option of a life on benefits, and that principle remains the same today.”

The plans were welcomed by the Chartered Institute for Personal Development, whose CEO Peter Cheese said they were “a step in the right direction” but called for “more ambition” to “make apprenticeships a viable alternative to university”.

Disability charity Scope also welcomed the announcement as “a positive vision for supporting disabled people into work”, but warned a “lack of trust” in the Department for Work and Pensions could “seriously undermine” the plan.

Louise Rubin, Scope’s head of policy, said: “We know that disabled people fear being forced into unsuitable jobs, or losing benefits if they engage with employment services.

“The Government must remove these risks, and work with disabled people to transform employment support and fix our broken benefits system.”


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Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
17 days ago

GBWA…bring back mining, steel making, ship building, civil engineering, textiles, work houses, slavery

Remploy/Maximus…

The Bumbles resemble the Penrhyn Quarry accident book…

Every accident, every death, was self-inflicted…Rees-Mogg country…

£100 million gambling levy…4 months wages for one CEO, Denise Coates bet365 …get real…

Last edited 17 days ago by Mab Meirion
Doctor Trousers
17 days ago

So we have 75% employment, do we? What they don’t bother mentioning is that to count towards that 75%, you only need to be provided with two hours of paid work in a fortnight. Of course, this only counts you as statistically employed, it doesn’t make you employed enough not to live under constant threat of sanctions from the job centre. So it makes you a kind of Schroedinger’s benefits claimant, depending on whether the government want to crow about the jobs they’ve created, or smear us all as a nation of lazy, entitled scroungers. Now sure, it was the… Read more »

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