15 December 2009
In an employment White Paper published today, the UK Government also announced more than 100,000 new opportunities for young people meaning that everyone under 25 years old will be guaranteed a job, training or work experience after six months unemployment. These opportunities are at the heart of a new plan to get Britain not only working but to full employment.
A radical reform to Housing Benefit, published today, will also do more to help people move off benefits and into work by getting rid of excessively high rent payments and keeping benefit payments stable as people take up a job for the first three months, so they don¿t need to worry about meeting their housing costs.
And Glasgow has been chosen as one of four pilot sites across the UK where Jobcentre Plus staff will be allowed greater flexibility in their approach to jobseekers. The aim of the pilot is to give district managers and Personal Advisers far greater discretion over the support that is offered to and the responsibilities required from customers.
Jim Murphy said:
"These proposals are good news for Scotland, and good news for people of all ages who are looking for work.
"I've said repeatedly that we won't make the mistakes of the 1980s - where a whole generation was left on the employment scrapheap. Then, youth employment continued to rise after the recession ended and some young people never worked, which is why we are investing in young people today. And that's why we will be announcing more jobs for young Scots via the Future Jobs Fund on Wednesday.
"But we're also providing extra help for the over-50s and we're making changes to housing benefit so that it doesn't fall immediately once someone gets back into work.
"And we want work to pay, so we are putting to an end to the situation where some people have complained that they are better off on benefits than they would be in work. From now on, people unemployed more than six months should always be better off in work."
The Secretary of State also confirmed today the appointment of the final member to the Glasgow welfare and benefits system task force. Margaret Thomson, a community activist from Sighthill in Glasgow, will join the group that has been tasked to examine the welfare challenges in and around Glasgow and consider potential solutions for welfare in the city within the UK benefits system, with a particular focus on disadvantaged groups, generational poverty and benefit reliance.