Good morning. Today the government is unveiling what it is calling, in the headline on its overnight press release, the “biggest employment reforms in a generation”. The reforms are intended to tackle the fact that Britain is the only major economy where the employment rate has fallen over the last five years, largely because more people are out of work due to long-term ill health. A white paper called Get Britain Working is being published later, and Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, is due to make a statement in the Commons later.
In its overnight briefing, the Department for Work and Pensions has already flagged up numerous initiatives which are in the white paper. Overall, the focus seems to be more carrot than stick. “Our reforms put an end to the culture of blaming and shaming people who for too long haven’t been getting the support they need to get back to work,” Keir Starmer says. But quite a lot of key decisions have been postponed, and at this point it is hard to assess quite how significant, or effective, these meaures will turn out to be. The history of welfare reform is littered with announcements that don’t quite live up to “biggest in a generation” hype.
This is how Starmer sums up what is government is doing.
From the broken NHS, flatlining economy, and the millions of people left unemployed and trapped in an inactivity spiral – this government inherited a country that simply isn’t working. But today we’ve set out a plan to fix this. A plan that tackles the biggest drivers of unemployment and inactivity and gives young people their future back through real, meaningful change instead of empty rhetoric and sticking plaster politics.
We’re overhauling jobcentres to make them fit for the modern age. We’re giving young people the skills and opportunities they need to prepare them for the jobs of the future. We’re fixing the NHS so people get the treatment and mental health support they desperately need to be able to get back to work. We’re working with businesses and employers to better support people with disabilities and health conditions to stay and progress in work, and it doesn’t stop there.
Our reforms put an end to the culture of blaming and shaming people who for too long haven’t been getting the support they need to get back to work. Helping people into decent, well-paid jobs and giving our children and young people the best start in life – that’s our plan to put more money in people’s pockets, unlock growth and make people better off.
The Conservatives say the plans won’t work because the government is ducking tough decisions. This is what Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said overnight.
This latest announcement shows that Labour are not prepared to take the tough but necessary choices to bring down the benefits bill.
There is no attempt to match the £12bn in welfare savings we promised in our manifesto. They have even dodged the difficult decisions on sickness benefits, which are needed to make the welfare system sustainable in the long term.
To get people off benefits you also need jobs for them to go to. But Labour’s disastrous anti-growth budget is already making businesses think twice about taking people on.
Here is Pippa Crerar’s overnight story.
I will be posting a lot more reaction and analysis as the day goes on. But here is a full list of what is coming up today.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chair cabinet.
10.30am: The supreme court begins a two-day hearing on a legal case brought by For Women Scotland who are arguing that trans women should not be regarded female for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act.
11.30am: David Lammy, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, is expected to make a Commons statement about the Get Britain Working white paper.
After 1.30pm: MPs debate the tobacco and vapes bill, which would over time ban smoking by gradually raising the age at which people can legally buy cigarettes.
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