Benefits
The benefits system is broken. There are 5.3 million people in Britain on out of work benefits. Around 3.7 million of these are not required to look for a job for health reasons. A substantial number are under 34 years of age. This number soared when face to face health checks were replaced by remote assessments.
We want an efficient welfare system that helps the genuinely disabled, sick, vulnerable and unemployed to find work. Currently our benefits system encourages dependency and entitlement. This damages mental health, locks people into poverty and wastes talent. Low pay and high tax means many can earn more on benefits than in work. Meanwhile nearly a million job vacancies are unfilled. If you can work you must work. There are too many shirkers and skivers while many with disabilities work hard and pay tax.
Critical reforms needed in the first 100 days:
Make Work Pay.
Lifting the income tax start point to £20,000 per year means an extra £1,500 per year. This would be a key incentive for those on benefits to find work.
Start to Motivate up to 2 Million People Back to Work.
Reforms to benefit support & training will help people back into work. Particular focus on
16-34 year olds. Employment is critical to improving mental health. Tax relief for businesses that undertake apprenticeships.
Enforce a 2-Strike Rule for Job Offers.
All Job seekers and those fit to work must find employment within 4 months or accept a job after 2 offers. Otherwise benefits are withdrawn.
Face to Face, Not Remote Assessment for Personal Independence Payment. Human contact is critical to build relationships and coach people back into work. We will also require independent medical assessments to prove eligibility for payments.
Thereafter:
Integrate Mental Health Services with Job Seeking Pathways.
Britain’s young people are in the grip of a mental health crisis. Work is a cure not a cause.
Stop Benefit Fraud.
Overhaul anti-fraud practices to ensure the Department for Work and Pensions cut fraudulent benefit claims to negligible levels.
“All Job seekers and those fit to work must find employment within 4 months or accept a job after 2 offers. Otherwise, benefits are withdrawn.”
Can you please clarify, are you saying that all job seekers will be offered at least two jobs within 4 months? That sounds great! So in effect, you’re committed to offering every job seeker two jobs within 4 months?
What happens if you fail to offer them a job, will they still be removed within 4 months? I think if that’s the case, that’s very harsh. Many people are simply less recruitable thus may not find a job but not through lack of trying! For example, they may have a relatively minor criminal record from 20+ years back but no one wants to hire them as a result. They may have been out of the job market for so long they lack experience. Likewise, they may not tick the right diversity boxes, lack education, or have a minor health issue that prevents many jobs, but not all.
To simply say, “ah well your 4 months are up, we couldn’t offer you a job and you didn’t find one so your benefits are withdrawn” is genuinely disgusting. We would see mass homelessness on a scale unprecedented by people who through no fault of their own fall through the cracks.
If you offered these less recruitable people two jobs, and they refused that’s a different matter, but if you cant find them work, and neither can they, are you just going to let them suffer?
Maybe we should look at changing the lifelong criminal records that prevent many people from getting jobs. Why do we think lifelong criminal records are a good thing? It simply encourages people into a life of crime. They just end up stuck on benefits unable to get hired, even if they are decent people who made a silly mistake. Sure legally no one is allowed to throw away a CV based on a spent conviction, but it always happens.