Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are planning to
take to reduce the number of people in receipt of out-of-work
benefits.
The Parliamentary-Secretary, Cabinet Office, and Parliamentary
Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions () (Con)
My Lords, building on all the work that we have done to date, we
will continue to support people to move into and progress in
work. Unemployment is at a near low of 3.5%, so our efforts have
to date been working. Our comprehensive labour market offer gives
claimants the best possible chance to be financially independent.
We are investing £900 million in each year of the spending review
into our work coaches, who are fundamental to help move people
from welfare to work. As noble Lords all know, we are raising the
administrative earnings threshold, strengthening the support we
give to claimants, and setting very clear work expectations of
claimants and a very clear outline of what we will do to help
them.
(Con)
That is helpful, but there is a severe labour shortage in this
country. I hope that my noble friend will be able to tell me the
exact number of people who are on out-of-work benefits within the
working age population. Estimates vary but in some areas it is
one in five people; in some cases one in four people is on
out-of-work benefits. Of course, many people are disabled and
need support, but the coalition Government of the Conservatives
and the Liberal Democrats got a lot of people back into work with
support. At the moment, the number of people on out-of-work
benefits is rising at a time of labour shortage. What more can
the Government do?
(Con)
My noble friend makes many important and accurate points. As of
February 2022, 5.18 million working-age adults, or 12.7% of the
GB working-age population, were receiving out-of-work benefits,
the largest category being UC out-of-work or no work-related
requirements. We are trying to reduce the flow into unemployment
and inactivity by supporting disabled people and people with
long-term health conditions; prevention and retention work,
including launching a national information and advice service to
help employers, because it is only employers who create jobs so
they are the ones we need to work with to move people into work;
and our interventions that I have already described, including
large-scale trials of additional work coach support for the 2.8
million customers with health conditions.
(Lab)
My Lords, as the noble Lord acknowledged, many of those in
receipt of out-of-work benefits are not in a position to take
paid work because of, for instance, caring responsibilities or
long-term incapacity. Given the evidence of the dreadful hardship
they are already experiencing, will the DWP do all it can to
ensure these benefits are uprated in line with inflation next
year and are not subject to further cuts, as has been
rumoured?
(Con)
Please believe me when I say that we all understand the desire
for benefits to be uprated in line with inflation. I have to wait
until the Secretary of State carries out her review, which will
be announced to the House on 25 November. We will work with
people with really bad conditions and real difficulties to see
whether they can move into work, but they will be dealt with
compassionately and carefully.
(Con)
In the Restart programme, what does “strengthening support” mean
and what proportion of those on the programme gain a position and
are still in it six months later?
(Con)
That was the exam question. As my noble friend knows, the Restart
scheme gives jobseekers out of work for nine months more
intensive support to find a job. It has achieved more than
226,000 starts. The issue my noble friend raised concerning
whether they are still in work six months later is really
important. I do not have those statistics but I will go back to
the department, find out whether we have them and, whether we
have them or not, I will write to her and put a copy of the
letter in the Library.
(LD)
Does the Minister believe the Government are doing enough to
remove the barriers that prevent people working? For example,
carers are finding it more and more difficult to get any support,
and when they do, they are faced with huge bureaucracy. Childcare
is unaffordable even when it is available, which is not much of
the time. Transport can be very expensive and inaccessible to
certain groups of the population. Does the Minister agree that
getting people back to work is much more about removing barriers,
rather than imposing more punitive conditions on the already poor
and vulnerable?
(Con)
Let me start by saying that the intention behind our efforts is
not to issue punitive measures. Let us clear this up right now:
as I have always said, sanctions are imposed only if there is no
good reason for people not to take up an opportunity offered to
them and they can do it. Some 98.9% of sanctions are down to the
fact that people fail to turn up for interview, and the minute
that they ring up to book the next appointment, the sanction is
reviewed. At the DWP we do not go to work in the morning saying,
“How many people can I sanction today?” That is just not the
line. The noble Baroness raised a point about childcare, and it
is number one on my list. I have just come back from the G7 where
I spoke to my colleagues in Australia and Canada who have made
enormous strides in improving childcare. The noble Baroness can
take it from me that I am on the case.
(Lab)
My Lords, the number of people available for work is reducing
primarily because of the increase in ill health in this country,
as the Minister conceded. What discussions is her department is
having with the Prime Minister, the Treasury and the Department
of Health about how we start taking measures that will improve
health in this country and move us away from being one of the
unhealthiest countries in Europe?
(Con)
I am not aware of any discussions with the Prime Minister, who
probably has enough on her plate at the moment. We are well aware
that the longer people have health problems—the longer they
exist—the more difficult it is. We are working hand in glove with
the Department of Health and with psychologists and
psychotherapists to help people who have depression and anxiety.
I have found that the best way to stop people losing their job
because of mental health issues is to make sure that we work with
the doctors so that when they give them their antidepressant
prescription, they send them to us quickly and we can get them
back to work sooner rather than later.
(Con)
My Lords, the high level of youth unemployment is due to the fact
many 18 year-olds leave school without any technical or data
skills. The Minister’s department announced last week that there
are 1.4 million job vacancies in this country. We lack skilled
workers, and we will not get more skilled workers until the
Government accept that there must be high-quality technical
education in all of our schools alongside academic subjects—and
that they have not changed.
(Con)
I completely agree with my noble friend, and we need to take this
up with the Department for Education, which has responsibility
for this. My noble friend has been a long-time champion of
technical and higher education. I will speak to my colleague in
the Department for Education, write to my noble friend and place
a copy in the Library.
(CB)
My Lords, in response to an earlier question the Minister rightly
said that many people are sanctioned and deprived of their
benefits because they fail to turn up for an interview. I happen
to know that a good proportion of those people—parents with sick
children, for example—are denied benefits because of a failure of
somebody in the department. The child wakes up sick in the
morning, the parent phones in and says, “I’m sorry, I can’t make
the interview; please hand on this information”, it is not handed
on and they are sanctioned. This happens time and again. Will the
Minister accept that this is the case and look into it?
(Con)
I am very happy to look into it. Before I do so, maybe I can
speak with the noble Baroness to get some more information to
share with my colleagues in the department.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Minister mentioned people with ill health. The
group falling out of the labour market fastest are the over-50s,
and the ONS has found that more than half of over-50s who have
left the labour market since the pandemic have done so because of
physical or mental ill-health. What is the Minister’s department
doing to target over-50s who have left the labour market, who are
much needed out there and who want to get back into work? Some of
them are not technically unemployed; some are not even getting
benefits. What are jobcentres doing about those people?
(Con)
We have our programme for over-50s and our over-50s champions. If
somebody over 50 is on a benefit, they will be engaged with a
work coach, who will have to identify the barriers and put
interventions in place to overcome them. People not involved in
benefits will get a mid-life MOT and direction to Jobcentre Plus.
