SWITCH & DITCH
Toughest benefit sanctions announced by Tories will be DITCHED, says Work and Pensions Secretary
Kendall accused the Tories of turning the Job Centre Plus into a 'benefit monitoring service'
THE TOUGHEST benefit sanctions announced by the Tories will be ditched, says the Work and Pensions Secretary.
Liz Kendall blasted plans for Universal Credit claimants to lose benefits if they were still jobless after a year.
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She told The Sun: “We are not leaving people after 12 months without genuine support.”
And she outlined her mission to “get Britain working again” and reach an 80 per cent employment rate in ten years.
Ms Kendall slammed her predecessors for their “strivers versus scroungers” rhetoric.
At an event in Barnsley, which coincided with the publication of the Pathways to Work Commission report by former cabinet minister and health adviser Alan Milburn, she said: “They turned Job Centre Plus into a benefit monitoring service not a public employment service, which was its original aim and they didn’t give nowhere near enough attention to the wider issue like health skills, childcare, transport, that play such a huge role in determining whether we get work, stay in work and get on in work.”
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Asked by The Sun if she will reverse plans for tougher Universal Credit sanctions - including rules to cut people off support all together if they do not comply with efforts to get into work, she said: “The problem with what the Tories proposed was after 12 months to do this.
“We are not leaving people 12 months without genuine engagement and support.”
The Cabinet Minister stressed “there have always been conditions to look for work and consequences”, adding: “That won’t change, but I’ve got to see a much greater focus on that upfront help and support.“
Alongside stricter UC rules, former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had announced a consultation on changes to the PIP disability benefit but the new Government has not yet said if it will reverse these.
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Labour plans include a “youth guarantee” to offer training to 18 to 21-year-olds and the transfer of power to councils to lead plans for the jobless.
The Government will also transfer powers to local areas, in what Ms Kendall called “a fundamental shift in the balance of power and resources” to mayors and local areas to lead work, health and skills plans for the economically inactive.
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