BBC
The government has announced that job coaches will visit critically ill patients in mental health wards and try to get them back to work.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendal told the BBC that trials of employment advisers in hospitals giving CV and interview advice had had “dramatic results”.
He said the wider rollout would come as part of efforts to reduce the UK’s annual disability and incapacity benefit bill. However, disability rights campaigners have expressed concerns about the proposal.
This comes after figures suggest benefits will rise by 1.7% next April as prices rise.
This is lower than current wage increases and also lower than the expected 4.1% increase in the state pension in April, which is governed by the so-called triple lock.
Most benefits increased by 6.7% in April this year, matching the rate of inflation a year ago.
“Dramatic” trial
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the cost of disability benefits in particular is expected to soar by almost a third over the next four to five years.
The report predicted that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would spend £63bn by 2028-29, up from £48bn in 2023-24.
“I want these costs to come down because I want people to be able to work and keep their jobs, so that’s good for them,” Kendall told BBC News in an exclusive interview.
“Welfare programs can have a huge impact on whether they encourage or discourage work,” he said, suggesting some people would lose benefits.
Mr Kendall praised projects in Leicester City and at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, south-east London. The hospital provided employment support, including resume writing and interview training, to people with serious mental illness, including those on its wards.
“This is for people with serious mental health issues,” she said. “And the consequences of putting people into work are dramatic, and the evidence clearly shows that it’s better for their mental health.”
He added: “We need to really focus on putting employment advisers in mental health services. It’s better for people and better for the economy. We just need to think differently. ” he added.
The amount of some benefit payments should be increased by law, at least in line with prices.
These include all major disability benefits such as Personal Independence Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Disabled Living Allowance, and Caregiving Allowance.
Other credits, such as Universal Credit, which 7 million people received, are expected to rise in line with inflation, but that is a ministerial decision.
By convention, the September consumer price index (CPI) rate, which is the basis for this increase, is 1.7%.
However, the DWP is preparing a new jobs white paper to be published in time for the Budget and Spending Review later this month. This white paper outlines plans to reform specific benefits, including who is eligible for them.
Disability Rights UK has raised several concerns about the proposed policy.
The party said the DWP’s first report on the proposals in July made no mention of equality legislation, flexible working or access to work schemes, and only one mention of reasonable adjustments. criticized for not doing so.
“We are really struggling with health issues.”
Ms Kendall said she believed British society was “sick” and that the UK was “the only G7 country where employment rates have not returned to pre-pandemic levels”.
Official figures for June to August released yesterday show that 21.8% of people are considered to be “economically inactive”, meaning those aged 16 to 64 who are not in work. Or it means not looking for a job.
The number fell slightly from May to July, but remains near a 10-year high after rising during the pandemic.
“There is clear evidence that we are truly suffering from health problems,” Kendall added.
“I don’t think the extra £30bn of spending on sickness and disability benefits is because people feel ‘a little depressed’,” he quoted his predecessor, Mel Stride, as saying.
He also called on employers to “think differently” about workers with mental health conditions and offer flexibility to support and retain workers with health problems.
Mr Kendall also said the BBC’s jobs center would be transformed by integrating with the national jobs service and using AI.
She proposed retaining in-person work for “people who really need it” and providing “more personalized support using AI” for everyone else, as her predecessor, Stride, said. Expanded the ideas introduced.
She also suggested that empowering local leaders could help more closely match unemployed people with local vacancies.
This comes in response to calls from Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham for management of employment centers to be transferred to local government.
