Political parties make commitments to worklessness

All 3 main UK parties have explained their different approaches to worklessness and their plans for welfare reform in 3 articles published today by Inclusion. The articles feature in the monthly journal Working Brief.

The authors are Jim Knight (Minister of State, DWP) for Labour, Theresa May (shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) of the Conservatives and Paul Rowan (shadow spokesperson for Work and Pensions) of the Liberal Democrats.

Jim Knight says that Labour is “focused on securing the recovery and rebuilding the economy, protecting public services”. He insists that “when the global recession hit this time, this government was so determined not to repeat the mistakes of past recessions”. He says that “the action we’ve taken has paid off”. Unemployment has now peaked and “as we emerge from recession, most people are moving off JSA really quickly”. For the future, he says that they “are already creating over 200,000 Future Jobs Fund jobs, including 155,000 jobs for young people.” He adds that Labour will “create one million new skilled jobs by 2015, through investment in growth sectors like the low carbon, digital, creative, life-sciences industries.” Knight adds that Labour is “committed to ending the concept of a life on benefits” and pledges that anyone who is unemployed for two years “will be guaranteed a job or work experience.” He says that “as the economy recovers we are ensuring no-one gets left behind.”

Theresa May says that the Conservatives aim for “a radical reform of welfare” with a single Work Programme at the heart of its plans. The programme will be for “everyone who is unemployed” and is “designed to deliver support to people based on their personal needs instead of the benefit that they are claiming.” She says that the Work Programme “will focus on the outcomes it delivers” and “it will cover more people, intervene earlier and be more focused on results than the current system. May insists the Conservatives will “retest everyone on Incapacity Benefit”. She says they have “taken the tough decision” that and all those who are found to be fit for work “should be moved onto Jobseeker’s Allowance with a subsequent reduction in benefits”. They will also be “expected to engage with welfare-to-work providers”.

May commits the Conservatives to “better use of the expertise of private and voluntary sector providers” and payments to providers must reflect the degree of difficulty faced on a case-by-case basis. She says that a Conservative government “will not pay for failure” but “will insist on payment by results and outcome-based contracts, ensuring the right balance between upfront finance and rewards for success”. Conservatives will “use differential payments to reflect the difficulty that individuals face in getting into work” and a much more “robust definition of a successful outcome.”

She also promises a significant overhaul of the benefits system. She says that the system creates a poor balance between “the security of benefits versus the insecurity of work.” and that “it can often be impossible for someone to work out whether they’ll be better off in work or not.” She says the Conservatives are “determined that we will have a simpler benefits system at the end of a Conservative government.

Paul Rowan for the Liberal Democrats says that his party also wants to make the transition to work financially more attractive. He says that people can be “worse off if they take a full time job as they face withdrawal of benefits at marginal rates of more than 60%.” He wants a system whereby returners to work can “have some of that benefit paid to them, with perhaps some paid to their employer as a subsidy.” He says there should be “incentives such as the continued payment of Housing Benefit or JSA for a period after securing a job to encourage people to stay in work.”

The Lib Dems also want “fresh approaches for the large number of young people who want to work.” Their plan is to “invest almost £900 million to create opportunities to help young people who are unemployed gain the skills and experience to move back in to work.” Young people will not spend “more than 90 days on JSA before they get more training, education, an internship or a place on a work programme.” This could also include “fast tracking onto a welfare-to-work programme such as the Flexible New Deal.” Rowan says his party plans to “pay anyone undertaking an internship a ‘training allowance’ of £55 a week which is £5 more than JSA.” He wants to create  800,000 internship and work placements “by investing nearly £400 million and working with employers in the private and public sectors”. The Lib Dems will also help more 19 to 25 year olds study full-time whilst out of work by increasing the Adult Learning Grant to £45 per week.

The attached file is a 6 page PDF of the 3 articles extracted from the May 2010 edition of Working Brief.