LABOUR aim to put a “Jobcentre in your pocket” as part of a raft of reforms aimed at slashing the benefits bill.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall unveiled a new white paper on reforms to the benefits system on Tuesday, saying that Labour believed: “If you can work, you must work.”
She was accused by the Tories of lifting wholesale their ideas to cut welfare spending, with Labour signed up to stick with the last government's ambition to cut £1.3 billion from the benefits bill every year.
And Labour have been accused of trying to get more people into work while "destroying" jobs with tax hikes on employers.
Pledging an overhaul of Jobcentres, Kendall vowed to make them a “genuine public employment service” and said that GPs would be encouraged to refer patients to employment services.
Changes to Jobcentres will be focused on England, with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) seeking to link them up with National Careers Service in England, beginning with a £55 million trial next year.
Kendall said that the plans “will look different in Scotland because the Scottish Government is responsible for running the careers service” but that there were ongoing discussions about how “we make sure our plans meet the specific needs of people in Scotland”.
Kendall said: “For too many people, walking into a Jobcentre feels like you’re back in the 80s or 90s, so we will trial a radically improved digital offer using the latest technologies and AI to provide up-to-date information on jobs, skills and other support, and to free up work coach time, and testing video and phone support too, because in the 2020s, you shouldn’t only have to go into the Jobcentre every week or fortnight when you can have a Jobcentre in your pocket.”
It comes as the Government seek to reduce the UK’s stubbornly high numbers of people out of work since the pandemic, with the benefits bill for sickness and disability set to reach £26bn in the next five years.
There are 2.8m people out of work due to long-term sickness and almost one million young people not in education or employment, Kendall told MPs in a statement in the Commons on Tuesday.
These numbers are “far worse” in the places that suffered under Margaret Thatcher’s deindustrialisation drive in the 1980s, Kendall said.
Labour’s new “youth guarantee” will seek to provide people aged between 18 and 21 with opportunities for employment, education and training.
Kendall (above) said young people had a “responsibility to take them up,” arguing that youth unemployment harmed people’s job prospects later in life.
There will be eight “trailblazer” areas – all in England – backed with £45m to trial this scheme and a new “Connect to Work” policy will be given £115m in initial funding next year, which will see responsibility for employment schemes devolved to selected local authorities south of the Border.
Disability charity Scope said that there was "much that is positive about this white paper" but warned there would be "a huge amount of anxiety" of any changes to the welfare system.
James Taylor, Scope's director of strategy, said: "Disabled people fear being forced into unsuitable jobs, or losing benefits if they engage with employment services. This lack of trust could seriously undermine the government’s plans to boost employment."
Labour have been accused of copying their plans from the Conservatives, with the shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately saying: "I welcome [her] taking our work forward."
In response to proposals to make benefits conditional on taking up opportunities for education and work, Whately said: "Did she forget that they already are?"
Mocking Labour's claims it wants to get more people into work, the MP said Chancellor Rachel Reeves was "busy destroying jobs".
SNP MP Kirsty Blackman (above) accused Labour of the "shameful diversion tactic" of "going after sick and disabled people" to distract from their "poor record on the economy".
She added: "For all the Downing Street spin, the reality is reckless Labour Government policies are damaging economic growth and are more likely to destroy jobs than create them."
The Scottish Greens said Labour had "opted for even more of the same punishing policies that have already caused so much damage and cost too many lives".
MSP Maggie Chapman said: "These appalling cuts are cruel, stigmatising and will cause stress, anxiety and pain to some of the most marginalised people in our society."
