'Fair' Benefit Reforms Announced

Plans to get one million people off the welfare system, and into the workplace, have been unveiled today and are being described as a "fair deal" by the Government.

A White Paper, published by Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell, will create a system where "virtually everyone has to do something in return for their benefits".

Ministers outlined moves which would see almost everyone on benefits, to do something in return, ranging from updating their CV to accepting full time training or a work trial.

Benefit claimants, including single mothers, will be expected to "play their part" in the British economy, or they will be at risk of losing their state benefits.

However, exceptions will include carers, jobless parents of very young children and severely disabled people.

James Purnell said: "These reforms will transform people's lives. We will give people on benefits the personal support they need to help them make a better life for themselves and their families.

"I believe that for the majority, work is part of the path to that better life which is why our reforms put the individual, and their needs, at the heart of the welfare system. While the plans are likely to be supported by Conservatives, as they say they suggested them over a year ago, some Labour backbenchers may oppose the plans.”

He added: "We will give people the support they need and in return we will have higher expectations on people to take up that support. We must have a system where the rules are fair for everyone, and everyone knows what the rules are.

"I believe it is wrong to have a welfare system which doesn't encourage people to prepare for or get back to work. In future virtually everyone will be expected to do something in return for their benefits."

The proposals, published today in the White Paper Raising expectations and increasing support: reforming welfare for the future, implements the reforms set out by David Freud in full and takes forward the recommendations made last week by Professor Paul Gregg.

This recommended that everyone on benefits, apart from the severely ill or disabled, some carers and parents of children under one, should either be actively looking for or preparing themselves for work.

Mr Purnell added that he agreed with the "vision" of the Gregg report and said the proposals are a "fair deal".

"More support for higher expectations. It is a deal which has always underpinned the welfare state," he said.

Purnell concluded: "Now is the right time to introduce these fundamental reforms. When times are tough you give people more support not less.

"We will not repeat the mistakes of the eighties and nineties when thousands of people were moved further away from employment by condemning them to a life on Incapacity Benefits. This only makes it harder for them to find work and get their lives back on track."

(JM)