22 February 2008
Thousands of unemployed people will have to prepare themselves for employment through training or work experience or risk losing the Jobseeker's Allowance, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell announced this week.
In a speech to the Social Market Foundation on February 20, Purnell said that from October 2009, all 18-year-olds not in employment, education or training will have to take part in 'work-related activities' for at least four weeks to carry on getting their benefits. Currently there are 25,000 in this category.
'We are announcing a radical move to tackle worklessness. The message I want to send is clear – if you can work, you should work, and that will be a condition of getting benefits,' Purnell said.
'There are a small number of people who are determined not to work. Avoiding work is not an option,' he added.
From October 2008, the government is also creating a single flexible New Deal programme to try to get long-term unemployed people back to work. It will call on public, private and voluntary sector organisations to bid to run the programme.
The successful bidder will also be expected to insist that all Jobseeker's Allowance claimants complete at least one month's work or 'work-related activity'.
The requirement to work to receive benefits could be extended indefinitely if people fail to find employment. People will be expected to work up to 30 hours a week to receive the weekly £46.85 allowance – well below the minimum wage.
Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Danny Alexander said the proposals were 'completely erratic'. He added: 'Evidence-based policy is being sacrificed for a desperate desire to sound tough.'
On the same day Health Secretary Alan Johnson outlined get-tough measures to tackle the 'sick-note culture'. He urged GPs to issue 'well-notes' setting out what tasks workers can perform instead of certificates automatically signing them off.
In a speech to the British Heart Foundation, Johnson said that he wanted to stop people drifting on to Incapacity Benefit. 'If we can stop that and help people back into work, that is a good thing. I don't think the current sick-note system helps with that,' he said.
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