Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary is set to unveil plans to encourage older workers and those with medical conditions back into work. In a speech, Jonathan Ashworth will promise improved support for those who have recently left employment. He will also say more flexibility over fitness-to-work tests could help those on sickness benefits to find work.
The government says it is increasing employment support for the over-50s. A spokesperson said ministers were also expanding the “mid-Life MOT” service offered to workers in their forties and fifties to review their skills. In his speech, Mr Ashworth will warn of a “monumental waste of human potential,” with 2.5 million people out of work because of long-term ill health.
In the address to the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank founded by former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, he will say that “hundreds of thousands” could be helped back into work with better support. He will accuse the Conservatives of “writing people off” – and argue that better help for jobseekers is now “urgent”. He will pledge that if it wins power at the next election, Labour would make it easier for those on sickness benefits to restart their payments if they take a job that doesn’t work out. Currently, many such claimants have to repeat the work capability assessment they initially took to determine what benefits they are eligible for.
Mr Ashworth is expected to argue this acts as a disincentive to taking a job. He will say a Labour government would instead let them return to claiming benefits within a year without a re-assessment. Mr Ashworth will also promise local councils control over a proportion of the skills budget currently spent by central government, to help ensure job training is better tailored to local areas. He will also say his party would introduce greater flexibility to the government grants available to people with health conditions or disabilities to help them stay in work.
He is expected to say this would include allowing “in-principle” decisions to applicants so that employers have more certainty about what help is available. Responding to a preview of the speech, a spokesperson for the government said it was investing an extra £22m in employment support for the over 50s. They added that the Department for Work and Pensions was reviewing workforce participation to see what action could be taken to cut economic inactivity.
