Summary
This White Paper from the Department of Work and Pensions
'Ready
for Work: Full Employment in Our Generation (Cm. 7290)' sets out the
Government's strategy for moving people from being passive recipients of
benefits to becoming active in seeking and preparing for work.
It builds on the reform principles set out in the Green Paper
'In
Work, Better Off: Next Steps to Full Employment (Cm. 7130)'. It also
relates to the policies set out in the skills document
'Opportunity,
Employment and Progression: Making Skills Work (Cm. 7288)' and to the
proposals to implement the
Leitch
Review set out in
'World
Class Skills: Implementing the Leitch Review of Skills in England (Cm.
7181)'.
This publication deals in particular with creating a
stronger framework of rights and responsibilities, and supporting people to
find work through a personalised and responsive approach.
Policies
include:
- Making work pay, to ensure long-term claimants see a
significant rise in their incomes when they take a job
- Lone parents
with older children will have to seek work, and availability of affordable
childcare will be a key part of the assessment by Jobcentre Plus staff
- Modernisation of the New Deal arrangements
- Jobcentre Plus will lead
the job search for the first 12 months
- Support for disabled people and
people with health conditions will be revised, with Employment and Support
Allowance replacing Incapacity Benefit, and Pathways to Work and a Work
Capability Assessment being available
- Jobcentre Plus will be at the
heart of the system and will work in partnership with public, private, and
third sector specialist providers, employers, and local communities
- Integrated employment and skills provision with basic skills screening and
more support for training.
The Government remains committed to a
welfare policy aimed at tackling poverty through full employment.
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