Party manifestos contain few welfare-to-work surprises

The three main Party manifestos were published this week. The Labour and Tory documents underline the growing convergence between the two parties on welfare reform. But there are some marked differences too. The Lib Dems say relatively little about the labour market but promise a temporary work experience and training programme for young people.

Both main parties are emphatic about reducing “welfare dependency” although it is the Conservatives who use that phrase, not Labour. The Conservatives say that they will give the unemployed “a hand up not a hand out” which is a phrase that Labour has periodically used in the past. Both parties say they want a system that provides targeted and personalised help for jobseekers. And both parties recognise that increased skills are essential for competitiveness and for individuals to prosper.

Labour

The Labour Party’s manifesto pledges are entirely consistent with the policies contained in the
DWP White Paper published on March 30th.

Labour presents an upbeat assessment of the potential for economic recovery and the role of the welfare system in achieving “a swift return to full employment”. The Party’s pledge is centred on “a modern welfare state for all” that will get more “people into employment, increase tax revenues and reduce spending on benefits. Labour promises to “build a personalised welfare system” that:

• offers protection for all those who need it
• increases people’s control over their own lives
• is clear about the responsibilities owed to others.

For JSA claimants there will be 200,000 places provided through the Future Jobs Fund – a job or training place for young people who are out of work for six months. Benefits will be cut at ten months for refusal to take part. Anyone unemployed for more than two years will be “guaranteed work” but there will be “no option of life on benefits”.

Labour reiterates its recent White Paper pledge to re-assess the incapacity benefit claims of 1.5 million people. It will also guarantee supported employment “for those with the most serious conditions or disabilities”.

A re-elected Labour government would continue its “radical reform of how Jobcentre Plus helps lone parents” –with additional assistance “for childcare, training and support to find child-friendly employment”. Lone parents will be required to take steps preparing themselves for work when their youngest child reaches age 3 and will be required to seek work once their youngest child is 7.

Labour also intends to strengthen the better-off-in-work formula underpinning its approach to getting more people off benefits. It promises to introduce a “living wage” in the public sector and to ensure the National Minimum Wage rises each year “at least” in line with average earnings growth.

Labour would also address housing pressures: helping local authorities to build new homes and to maintain existing Council housing at the Decent Homes standard; and by encouraging greater levels of affordable home ownership and increasing the rights of private tenants. They will "end rough sleeping by 2010" and provide more Foyer accomodation for homeless 16 and 17 year olds and legislate so that, for anyone in this age group, their right to housing which will be met through supported housing.

Conservatives

The Conservatives pledge to “get Britain working again” was first made late last year with the publication of a document with the same name. So there are few manifesto commitments which come as a surprise.

In stark contrast to Labour’s manifesto, the Conservatives present a particularly gloomy picture of the labour market – citing a “tidal wave of worklessness” with 1 in 5 young people “unable to get a job”, economic inactivity rising and “more than five million people out of work and on benefits”.

The manifesto sets out their intention to create a single Work Programme to replace “Labour’s failing schemes” which they will “scrap”. The new single programme will be “for everyone who is unemployed” including 2.6 million people claiming incapacity benefits. Further on it emphasises that eligibility for the Work Programme will be slightly tighter than simply “for everyone”. It says entry would be triggered “straight away for those with serious barriers to work” and after six months unemployment for under 25s.

The Conservatives published a policy paper late in 2009 which also said that claimants “who have established solid work experience” could enter the new programme “up to 12 months after their first claim”. Others would include “people who have lost their job during the recession”; long-term unemployed or “people who cycle through the welfare to work system repeatedly without securing employment”; those who have migrated off Incapacity Benefit onto JSA and those who have moved from ICB onto employment component of the Employment and Support Allowance.

The other elements in the Work Programme have been well trailed: private and voluntary providers who will be “rewarded on a payment by results basis for getting people into sustainable work.” The programme will also “draw upon” Service Academies which the Conservatives announced a month ago. The first of these employer-led Academies will be for hospitality and leisure and provide “up to” 50,000 training and work placements. The Conservatives have also been piloting “Work Clubs” which are essentially mutual help groups of people looking for work assisted by volunteer mentors and coaches.

The Conservatives will implement “Work for the Dole” community employment programmes which will be mandatory for “long term benefit claimants who fail to find work”. And anyone declining to participate on the single Work Programme “will lose the right to claim out-of-work benefits until they do”. The manifesto also reiterates last week’s announcement that refusal of a job offer could lead to “forfeit of benefits for up to 3 years”.

The Conservatives also promise measures to boost business, employment and skills. They propose:

• A 12 months National Insurance contribution holiday for new firms hiring their first ten employees
• Support for entrepreneurs through a “Work for Yourself” programme giving access to mentors and to loan funds
• Retain the National Minimum Wage
• Abandon Train to Gain and replace it with 400,000 work-pairing, apprenticeship, college and training places over 2 years;
• Give SMEs a £2,000 bonus for each Apprentice they hire
• Create a new all-ages careers service
• To “set colleges free from direct state control” and re-establish a Further Education Funding Council
• Creating 400,000 work pairing, apprenticeship college and training places over two years
• Establishing a community learning fund to help people restart their careers
• Providing 10,000 extra university places in 2010, paid for by giving graduates incentives to pay back their student loans on a voluntary basis.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats’ assessment of the economy is less bleak than the Tories. They say that "Britain is struggling to emerge from a long and difficult recession ... with millions unemployed, and millions more taken pay cuts or reduced hours to stay in their jobs."

The Liberal Democrat manifesto extensively discusses job creation but says little about ensuring that unemployed or economically inactive people can fill such new jobs. The party is committed to infrastructure investment including new homes and creating new green jobs, making a fundamental structural shift towards a new eco-economy.

A page in the manifesto headlined "fair treatment at work for everyone" sets out some labour market equality measures. These are

• extending the right to request flexible working to all employees;
• for all companies with 100+ employees, requiring name-blind job application forms to reduce sex and race discrimination;
• fair pay audits for every company with 100+ employees

The Lib Dems say they will give disabled job seekers “better practical help to get to work, using voluntary and private sector providers, as well as JobCentre Plus services.” They also promise to “reform Access to Work, so disabled people can apply for jobs with funding already in place for equipment and adaptation that they need.”

The Party also pledges to create “hundreds of thousands of opportunities for young people affected by the recession”. This would consist of a work placement scheme with up to 800,000 places to “ensure that young people have the opportunity to gain skills, qualifications and work experience”. Participants would be paid £55 a week for up to three months. The manifesto says this will cost £660 million in 2010-11 and £95 million in the following year.

They would also fund 15,000 extra Foundation Degree places, fully meet the up-front costs of adult apprenticeships and increase the Adult Learning Grant to £45 a week for 18–24 year-olds in Further Education.”

A key element of the Lib Dem manifesto is their plan to boost the economy and create jobs through a one-year economic stimulus and job creation package. To sustain jobs and growth for the long term, the party would set up an ‘infrastructure bank’ to direct private finance to projects such as new rail services and green energy. In order to ensure that the economy is not destabilised by high-risk financial industries, the Liberal Democrats would break up the banks and build up ‘diverse local and regional sources of business finance’. The "green stimulus plan" aims to create 100,000 jobs by:
• investing up to £400m in refurbishing shipyards in the North of England and Scotland so that they can manufacture offshore wind turbines and other marine renewable energy equipment
• launching an ‘Eco Cash-Back’ scheme, for one year only, which gives people £400 for installing double glazing, replacing an old boiler, or installing micro-generation.
• setting aside extra money for schools who want to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings
bringing 250,000 empty homes back into use.

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The relevant extracted pages from the Labour and Conservative manifestos are listed below as attachments (see below). The Lib Dem manifesto does not have any dedicated section.