Jonathan Ashworth MP: ‘Making AI work for working people’ - Speech to the Social Market Foundation Jul 11

"Reforming welfare and helping more people make the breakthrough into sustained employment and progress in work will be our priority in a Labour Work and Pensions Department.

A new approach to welfare reform is needed.

Without action we risk condemning a generation to a life on the margins.

Today, unemployment is up. 1.3 million men and women are unemployed.

Many more fearing for their future.

The numbers out of work for sickness have risen to a record high of 2.5 million.

760,000 young people are not in education, employment or training.

All at a time when we have a million vacancies in the labour market.

Its why reforms are so urgent.

After 13 years of Conservative government too many people trapped on welfare, going nowhere.

It’s an unforgivable waste of their potential.

We will help people move off Universal Credit and into work. 

And when in work, we will help people progress into a career or work more hours so they no longer need to rely on Universal Credit.

To do that we need new reforms and new thinking.

6 months ago I outlined welfare reforms, where those currently not expected to work on disability or sickness related benefit but who want to try work would be given support and help to do so, with changes to the Work Capability Assessment regime and Access to Work scheme.

And with Wes Streeting we’ve described how the joining up of health services with employment services can offer tailored help for many people currently out of work for mental health conditions move into employment with support and security.

Many over 50s have left the workplace - though some would like to return with the right option.

Yet under the government’s system many are denied any help finding a job.

Just last week I heard of a 51 year old woman who visited a Jobcentre.

Because she doesn’t need to sign on for Universal Credit, they told her they couldn’t do anything for her, instead sending her away with a flyer for a jobs fair in a few weeks’ time.

Under our plans, Jobcentres will help the over 50s find the flexible work opportunities many say they want.

To help parents move into work and take on more hours, our shadow education secretary Bridget Philipson has a plan to fund school breakfast clubs.

When we know firms trying to recruit to their workforce need skilled employees, and because AI, data and technology means there is an even greater premium on skills;

Keir Starmer last week outlined new reforms to give unemployed young people the skills necessary in the modern world to find well paid work.

Alongside these active labour market strategies, we also need a Jobcentre Pus service fit for the needs of a modern, dynamic economy.

Instead of a conveyer belt to low paid work we want a reformed Jobcentre Plus offering an escalator to a better life.

To do that our Jobcentres must become more responsive to employers, more linked with the needs of local communities, and with more local direction making it better equipped to deal with the challenges of a modern, dynamic economy.

Today I’m arguing that better use of AI, data, digital and technology can help us transform DWP services helping people into work faster.

The sad reality is what’s on offer today isn’t up to the challenges of tomorrow.

Despite a £1 billion IT budget, the department has a chequered history with technology. 

Whilst yes it was rightly praised for successfully administering an increased benefit caseload in the pandemic, other projects have been beset by delays and problems. 

Take the pensions dashboard for example – reset after millions of pounds have already been spent.

The failure to embrace - and properly grip - new technology has consequences. 

Every year thousands of people miss out on the benefits they are entitled to because the DWP does not target them effectively. 

Huge volumes of claims are processed late, and the bewildering world of online job applications means that people who interact with the jobcentre can be left pointlessly applying for the same job twice. 

The DWP impacts on millions of people’s lives every single day but yet it doesn’t hold even some of the most basic information – such as the jobs people want to apply for, or the training it is sending young people on.  

I was talking to a voluntary sector organisation last week – who have worked with DWP – and who wanted to help young unemployed find work in hospitality, but the Jobcentre said they couldn’t run off a list of local young people who are interested in bar work. Not because of data protection but because they didn’t hold the data.

And most shocking of all.

Fraud and error in the DWP is at over a £8 billion a year.

Can you imagine a business making over £8 billion of errors year after year?

The past 13 years have seen new technology and advances in the use of AI, automationand data science that frankly we couldn’t have dreamed of in 2010. 

The apps that we use every day in our work and personal lives – Spotify, Bolt, newspaper apps – all have embraced innovation and used technology to improve the services they offer. 

The same cannot be said for the Department of Work and Pensions.  

It’s too often an analogue service in an AI age.

But while many warn of the risks of AI, I’m an optimist and want to embrace the opportunities AI gives us for reform.

The DWP should be making smarter use of AI, digital, data and tech to transform Jobcentre Plus services.

Used properly and with safeguards in place, AI can help prepare jobseekers move into work, it can tackle fraud, and it can ensure citizens receive the payments they are entitled to. 

Take moving into work: The current journey into work for a Jobcentre customer can be time consuming.

We expect jobseekers to apply for multiple jobs a day. 

I’ve heard from jobseekers who tell me they apply for numerous jobs only to find it’s the same job advertised again or again.

The process can also mean endless applications for jobs that aren’t suitable.

Wasting time for applicants and frankly no use for the firms as well.

On the most recent analysis published by the DWP, Jobcentre Plus helps sixty per cent of unemployed people back into work within nine months.

I believe Jobcentres services of the future could make better use of AI, analysing job seekers' skills and preference matching them with potential jobs and helping them into work faster.

AI in the hands of Jobcentre work coaches will better help jobseekers with CV analysis tools and interview practice. 

AI is now routinely used for rapidly assessing CV applications for current jobs. 

Let’s now make it focused on getting people the skills they need for future jobs as well.

And better use of data could ensure each jobcentre adapts its advice and help for jobseekers when local labour market conditions change. 

So overall AI could mean the degree of personalisation, and the quality of jobs that can be advertised will make the overall experience a better one for unemployed people.

And should free up jobcentre employment advisers to do offer support to potentially vulnerable individuals who need more tailored help, rather than spending hours correcting CVs and wading through lists of job postings.

Other countries are moving in this direction as are voluntary sector groups. So why not the DWP?

Equally, I’ve spoken with debt advice charities embedding AI chatbots in their services to provide round-the-clock support.

Fully embracing technology should allow Jobcentre services to do the same. 

Better use of data science and AI should allow us to drive up take up of entitlements currently going unclaimed;

And the shocking amounts of fraud and error overseen by the DWP – £8 billion on most recent figures – where criminal gangs are taking the taxpayer for a ride, can be confronted using more and better machine learning and pattern detection techniques as well.

What I’m describing is not fantasy. 

There have been some small DWP pilots in the use of AI.

But this government’s distracted approach – more focused on grandstanding than delivery when it comes to AI – has meant these innovations have yet to be properly scaled.

In contrast a Labour government will be serious about technology. 

We will make sure proven innovations are scaled to benefit all citizens.

There is the potential to save millions of pounds from efficiencies such as better buying, spend controls and procurement across the DWP’s IT contracts – so we can place AI, data and technology at the heart of our Jobcentre Plus reform agenda.

Of course, in deploying AI we need to be responsible as my colleague Lucy Powell is outlining today. 

AI can have enormous benefits, but we must be clear eyed on where it has limitations.

Labour would always take a responsible approach and one that always has a human in the loop. 

I’m a reformer and a moderniser.

And the reforms I will drive are built on principles of opportunity, responsibility and social justice.

Helping more people into quality work.

Giving people an opportunity to make the most of themselves.

Giving people dignity.

And giving people self-belief.

That’s the lesson I learnt from my parents who though working late nights in Manchester clubs and bars, knew a job was about opening up horizons.

I want to give people confidence and self-belief through the chance of good, quality job.

Labour today is the party of welfare reform and the party of public services reform.

A Labour Department of Work and Pensions will be a trailblazer embracing AI to open opportunities for work for everyone.

New technology holds enormous potential to make the future of work better. 

A Labour government will deliver on this potential. 

Thank you."