Latest editorial
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall during a visit to Peterborough College to attend an apprenticeship showcase, ahead of the publication of the Get Britain Working White Paper, November 25, 2024
IF you can work you must work, Labour’s welfare chief Liz Kendall pledged today as she announced measures to push people off welfare and into employment.
The package announced by the Work and Pensions Secretary to boost employment was mainly carrot, with the stick coming next year in the form of a benefits review.
Ms Kendall pledged a shake-up of the government jobcentres, rebadged as a National Jobs and Careers Service, and a “new youth guarantee” to ensure that all young people are in employment, education or training — at present up to a million are not.
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
In the current climate, it is vital to bust the myths and put forward the case for a humane and decent social security system that supports people, argues FRAN HEATHCOTE
