Don’t just work from home, look for work from home! Labour’s Liz Kendall unveils plan to give unemployed ‘a Jobcentre in your pocket’ using AI and smartphones to cure sicknote Britain_Nhy
Unemployed Brits will be offered a ‘Jobcentre in your pocket’ so they don’t have to troop to a gloomy dole office to seek work, a senior Labour minister said today.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said visiting the employment offices too often felt like ‘you’re back in the 80s or 90s’ and the service needed dragging into the modern world as she unveiled government plans to cure sicknote Britain.
Ministers are setting out wide-ranging reforms designed to tackle economic inactivity and deliver the Government’s promise to bring more than two million people back into work.
While unemployment stands at almost 1.5 million, economic inactivity has also soared to more than nine million, with 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness – a major driver of the rise in joblessness since the pandemic.
Introducing the Get Britain Working White Paper, Ms Kendall told the Commons that people who ‘can work, must work’, warning the benefits bill for sickness and disability is set to rise ‘by £26 billion by the end of this Parliament’.
But pointing out just one-in-six firms had used Jobcentres to hire staff, she added: ‘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.’
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said visiting the employment offices too often felt like ‘you’re back in the 80s or 90s’ as she unveiled government plans to get sicknote Britain back to work.
Introducing the Get Britain Working White Paper, Ms Kendall told the Commons: ‘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 came after Labour was accused of putting off urgently needed reforms to cure sicknote Britain.
The white paper published today is solely focused on employment support, including the revamp of Jobcentres as well as extra NHS appointments in unemployment hotspots.
A shake-up of the benefits system and a crackdown on welfare spending will not take place for many more months with proposals not even published until next year.
Downing St today suggested reforms to fit for work tests will be made separately to the Government’s push to get people back to work so they are not rushed.
Asked about commitments by ministers to reform the work capability assessment, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘It is important that we get those reforms right, this is clearly a really complex area, it is a challenge that is going to affect millions of people, so we are not rushing through the details of these reforms and it is important we work closely with charities and leading organisations, disabled people, people with health conditions, to ensure that we get those reforms right as we develop our plans ahead of the spring.’
Ministers need to ‘join the dots’ between rising taxes and employment costs and their hopes of getting people back into work, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said.
Matthew Percival, its work and skills director, said the Government ‘deserves credit’ for seeking to grip the ‘critical challenge’ of long-term sickness preventing people from returning to work.
He added: ‘Employers have a key role to play in supporting the delivery of the government’s objectives. There’s no doubt that rising taxes and employment costs will make it more difficult for them to do so.
‘That’s why it’s so important business and Government work together to join the dots across the policy landscape in order for policy intent to translate into long-term impact.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said Ms Kendall has ‘dodged tough decisions’ on welfare as she defended the previous Tory government’s record on employment and welfare.
Ms Whately said the new Labour administration was ‘rebranding’ some of their ideas, also telling the Commons: ‘Economic inactivity is a problem for our economy and for each and every individual who risks being written off to a life on benefits.
‘Knowing that, I am disappointed in the substance of what she is announcing today because far from matching her rhetoric, this appears to be little more than a pot of money for local councils, some disparaging language about the work of Job Centres and a consultation which will be launched in the spring. Given that they’ve had 14 years to prepare for this moment, is that it?
‘Where are the reforms to benefits that would actually make material savings to the taxpayer, like the £12 billion we committed to save in our manifesto? Where are the reforms to fit notes, which we had handed over all ready to go? Where is her plan for reforming the workplace capability assessment?’
She added: ‘The fact is the Secretary of State has dodged tough decisions. Every day she kicks the can down the road costs the taxpayer millions of pounds, at this rate rising to £100 billion on sickness benefits by the end of this Parliament.’
Ms Kendall, in her reply, said: ‘The only people who dodged difficult decisions on welfare were the party opposite.’
