A Job Centre revamp won't be enough to Get Britain Working

The Government is coy about some of the real issues surrounding our inactivity problems.

By Professor Len Shackleton, Editorial and Research Fellow

The Government’s Get Britain Working White Paper has been less than enthusiastically received. While rightly highlighting the need to reduce the numbers of working-age Brits who are economically inactive, especially those on benefits, its proposals seem unlikely to make much of a difference. The difficult part, restructuring the system to turn back the rising numbers on long-term benefits, has not been tackled, with vague promises of a consultation to be launched in the Spring. On past form this suggests there will be no concrete reform plans before 2026, with legislation taking much longer. Labour’s target of an 80% employment rate seems a way off.

The White Paper proposals – including revamping of Job Centres, a ‘guarantee’ of education, training or work placement opportunities for young people, recruitment of 8500 mental advisors to tackle those off work with mental health issues, and various ‘trailblazer’ local schemes to boost readiness for work, involving the Premier League and other glamorous employers – are not objectionable in themselves. They’ll quite possibly do some good. But the White Paper seems to ignore or gloss over important aspects of the current high levels of economic inactivity, perhaps because they are too sensitive and raise difficult cultural issues. Here are two.