Good morning. The Conservatives start their conference at the weekend and Kemi Badenoch is kicking off proceedings by announcing a significant plan for welfare reform – stopping many under-25s from being able to claim universal credit, the main unemployment benefit.
Instead, they would get a new Get to Work Allowance – which would be subject to conditions from day one intended to help people find work. If after six months they are still out of work, they would go on to a new benefit, a Subsistence Allowance, worth just 70% of their previous claims.
The plans don’t relate to disability benefits, because they would only apply to people able to work.
Explaining the plans in an interview with the Spectator, Kemi Badenoch said:
double quotation markIt’s unfair to the people who get up and go to work, having others earn more than them for not working. Even families on benefits know that the system is out of control. But no one wants to be the one to get off the treadmill first. We need to force that. Government has to do that.
The Tories are describing this as a “tough love” approach designed to deal with the problem of around one million young people being Neets (not in employment, education or training). Tim Shipman, who interviewed Badenoch for the Spectator, has a more colourful description. “This is the nanny state with menaces; Mary Poppins with an umbrella gun,” he says.
And here is the party’s explanation of its plans from its news release.
double quotation markThe Conservatives will require all 18-24 year olds who attempt to claim universal credit and who have not previously worked for a continuous period of 6 months to participate in a Get to Work scheme in exchange for welfare. Participants will receive a new ‘Get to Work Allowance’ which is contingent on their participation in the scheme. To be exempt from these requirements 18-24 year olds will have to demonstrate that they have previously been in continuous employment for a period of 6 months or more, for a minimum of 16 hours a week. Young people on UC who are not subject to work-related requirements, such as for health reasons or due to caring responsibilities, will be exempt.
The programme would last up to six months. Participants could leave earlier if they secure a job, apprenticeship or qualifying education or training place.
For participants in the Get to Work Scheme, the new Get to Work Allowance will replace the universal credit standard allowance. After 6 months, if participants on the scheme have not entered work they will automatically move down to the new Subsistence Allowance announced last week by the Conservatives. This is paid at 70% of the current Standard Allowance and will be pre-loaded onto a Back to Work card that prevents claimants spending on alcohol, cigarettes and gambling. After six months they would continue to be subject to demanding conditions.
We have not heard from Labour yet, and that may be because the party is not sure yet how to respond. Alan Milburn, the former cabinet minister, has finished the final report from his inquiry into Neets and it is due to be published before the budget. He is also expected to propose measures that would impose more conditions on young people getting out-of-work benefits because he also wants to stop people being consigned to a life on benefits. And ministers are expected to adopt his plans. We don’t know the details of the Milburn/government plans, and they will probably involve more carrot than stick than the Tory ones, but there may well be quite a lot of overlap too.
I will post more on the plans, and the Badenoch interview, soon.
Parliament is not sitting, and there is not much in the Westminster diary. But Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, does have a rally at 2pm this afternoon where he will respond to Andy Burnham’s conference speech..
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