News

The Guardian reports that thousands more unemployed people will be forced to work for free or lose their benefit. Whitehall sources have indicated that the mandatory work scheme will be “​significantly extended”​. Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, is expected to make an announcement about the extension of the scheme over the coming weeks.

The government is also considering a national trial of six months mandatory unpaid work for claimants. Currently claimants have to accept unpaid work for four weeks or lose their benefit.

The plans are described by critics as evidence of the government’​s panic over its failure to deal with long-term unemployment, and come following a warning from the Employment Related Services Association (the trade body for welfare-to-work providers) that its members may not meet the government’​s “​minimum”​ targets. Fewer than one in four people who had participated in the work programme for six months had found work.

The Labour Party claim a House of Commons Library analysis shows that government estimates for spending on jobseeker’​s allowance (JSA) and housing benefit (HB) have been revised upwards by £​9bn.

Full story in the Guardian