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Roll up your sleeves and find jobs, minister tells unemployed
Jobless people who do not make enough of an effort to find work face a "rude awakening" from tomorrow under new rules which could see them stripped of their benefits for three years.
Mark Hoban, the Employment Minister Photo: REX
Mark Hoban, the Employment Minister, uses an article for the Telegraph to deliver a warning to unemployed people who fail to "roll up their sleeves" and who think they can "play the system" to obtain a lifetime on welfare.
"I've got news for them – they can't," Mr Hoban writes. He adds that the new "three strikes and you're out" approach – likely to be hailed by the Tory Right – provides a "tougher regime".
A series of escalating penalties comes into force from tomorrow which will see the maximum period for which Jobseekers' Allowance (JSA) can be withdrawn rise from the current 26 weeks to three years.
Last year, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), jobcentre advisers took action against 495,000 claimants for not doing enough to find work – including 72,000 who had refused an offer of employment.
The new move comes against a backdrop of worsening relations on welfare between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats amid reports that George Osborne, the Chancellor, is considering a one-year freeze in all benefits from next April.
If most benefits went up, as is customary, by the annual rise in the consumer prices index recorded the previous September, then payments would increase in April by 2.2 per cent.
Mr Osborne is also said to be considering, as an alternative to a freeze, raising benefits in line with earnings, currently 1.4 per cent.
The new round of benefit cuts, designed to save £10 billion, also includes plans to remove housing benefit for those aged under 25.
Under the new penalty regime, a first failure to comply with rules about actively seeking work, such as refusing to accept a reasonable offer of employment or leaving a job voluntarily for no good reason, will see a claimant lose JSA – currently £64.30 a week for those aged 25 and over – for 13 weeks, while a second failure would see a fresh penalty of losing 26 weeks of payments.
Mr Hoban writes in his article that a third failure would be "simply not acceptable" and would attract the maximum penalty of three years without JSA. Those stripped of JSA have to apply for special "hardship payments" and if successful are paid 60 per cent of the amount they were getting in benefits.
Overall, the changes are part of the efforts by the coalition to simplify the current benefits system and move on to Universal Credit – the combined welfare payment to be launched by ministers next year.
Mr Hoban writes: "I make no apology for this. I am clear that for too long some people have taken benefits for granted as a way of life rather than as a safety net.
"Of course, we are committed to supporting people who cannot work through ill health or disability. But for people who can work but who refuse to play by the rules, tomorrow will be a rude awakening."
Last week's unemployment figures gave ministers some relief from grimmer economic news by showing the jobless rate falling from 8.1 per cent to 7.9 per cent in the three months to August, its lowest since May 2011. The total dropped by 50,000 to 2.53 million.
Meanwhile, according to the Office for National Statistics, employment increased by 212,000 to 29.6 million in the same period — the highest level since records began in March 1971.
There was also better news for those aged between 18-24, dubbed the "lost generation", because so many are classed as long-term unemployed. Youth unemployment fell by 62,000 to 957,000, the lowest figure in more than 12 months.
Source: Roll up your sleeves and find jobs, minister tells unemployed - Telegraph
Jobless people who do not make enough of an effort to find work face a "rude awakening" from tomorrow under new rules which could see them stripped of their benefits for three years.
Mark Hoban, the Employment Minister Photo: REX
Mark Hoban, the Employment Minister, uses an article for the Telegraph to deliver a warning to unemployed people who fail to "roll up their sleeves" and who think they can "play the system" to obtain a lifetime on welfare.
"I've got news for them – they can't," Mr Hoban writes. He adds that the new "three strikes and you're out" approach – likely to be hailed by the Tory Right – provides a "tougher regime".
A series of escalating penalties comes into force from tomorrow which will see the maximum period for which Jobseekers' Allowance (JSA) can be withdrawn rise from the current 26 weeks to three years.
Last year, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), jobcentre advisers took action against 495,000 claimants for not doing enough to find work – including 72,000 who had refused an offer of employment.
The new move comes against a backdrop of worsening relations on welfare between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats amid reports that George Osborne, the Chancellor, is considering a one-year freeze in all benefits from next April.
If most benefits went up, as is customary, by the annual rise in the consumer prices index recorded the previous September, then payments would increase in April by 2.2 per cent.
Mr Osborne is also said to be considering, as an alternative to a freeze, raising benefits in line with earnings, currently 1.4 per cent.
The new round of benefit cuts, designed to save £10 billion, also includes plans to remove housing benefit for those aged under 25.
Under the new penalty regime, a first failure to comply with rules about actively seeking work, such as refusing to accept a reasonable offer of employment or leaving a job voluntarily for no good reason, will see a claimant lose JSA – currently £64.30 a week for those aged 25 and over – for 13 weeks, while a second failure would see a fresh penalty of losing 26 weeks of payments.
Mr Hoban writes in his article that a third failure would be "simply not acceptable" and would attract the maximum penalty of three years without JSA. Those stripped of JSA have to apply for special "hardship payments" and if successful are paid 60 per cent of the amount they were getting in benefits.
Overall, the changes are part of the efforts by the coalition to simplify the current benefits system and move on to Universal Credit – the combined welfare payment to be launched by ministers next year.
Mr Hoban writes: "I make no apology for this. I am clear that for too long some people have taken benefits for granted as a way of life rather than as a safety net.
"Of course, we are committed to supporting people who cannot work through ill health or disability. But for people who can work but who refuse to play by the rules, tomorrow will be a rude awakening."
Last week's unemployment figures gave ministers some relief from grimmer economic news by showing the jobless rate falling from 8.1 per cent to 7.9 per cent in the three months to August, its lowest since May 2011. The total dropped by 50,000 to 2.53 million.
Meanwhile, according to the Office for National Statistics, employment increased by 212,000 to 29.6 million in the same period — the highest level since records began in March 1971.
There was also better news for those aged between 18-24, dubbed the "lost generation", because so many are classed as long-term unemployed. Youth unemployment fell by 62,000 to 957,000, the lowest figure in more than 12 months.
Source: Roll up your sleeves and find jobs, minister tells unemployed - Telegraph
