Responding to the Government's Get Britain Working White Paper, Ben Harrison, Director of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University said:

“The Government’s ambition to support more individuals to return to the labour market has a welcome focus on young people and those with long-term health conditions.

De-risking the route back into work

“Prioritising improvements to Jobcentres, the reforms rightly aim to make it easier for those out of work – whether claiming Universal Credit or not – to access tailored employment support, training and skills development. Ensuring that local decision-makers have the powers and funding to design and deliver more of this support will be key to ensuring interventions are better tailored to the needs of communities.

“Overall, the success of these measures will depend on wider changes to the benefits system to de-risk the journey back to employment. Government must ensure that those with long-term health issues are not inadvertently pushed into insecure and low-quality work which may only serve to worsen their condition in the long run. And it is critical that those with health conditions do not face the risk of losing their welfare entitlements should they attempt to return to the labour market and yet are unable to sustain work over the medium to long-term.

“Equally these reforms provide an opportunity to ensure that those in receipt of Universal Credit are supported to prioritise training and skills development opportunities that could help them enter more secure and sustained employment in the future.

The important role of employers

“And while it is positive that the Government intends to review the role of employers in creating healthy and inclusive workplaces for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, this must underpin a much bigger focus from Government and employers on retaining people in the workplace to begin with. Over the last year, on average 128 people per day have become economically inactive due to ill health. Without urgent action to stem this tide of people leaving the labour market, these reforms are unlikely to succeed.

Challenges ahead

“There remain significant questions over the Government’s intentions to reform the Work Capability Assessment, which could yet impact over 400,000 people. And as the economic and financial landscape is likely to remain highly challenging, it’s vital that we now see a commitment to longer term funding for these reforms as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.”

Note:

> 128 per day data is from July-Sep 2023 to July-Sep 2024 (ONS Labour Market Overview)