Conservatives crack down on jobseekers with tougher rules

Unemployed face losing benefit unless they spend several hours per day seeking work and accept any job within 90-mile radius Conservatives released plans to require the unemployed to look for a job for several hours a day and be willing to accept a job anywhere within a 90-mile radius of their home, or lose their benefit. A jobseeker who fails to take up a reasonable job offer three times will be debarred from receiving benefit for three years. A new DWP IT system will also make it easier for Jobcentre Plus staff to monitor the amount of jobseeking an unemployed person is undertaking, including how many job applications they have filled out. Trials will also be undertaken to require the jobless to sign on every week, rather than fortnightly. The proposals had been due to be in Monday’s speech delivered by Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, but were pulled at the last minute in the expectation that they would be owned by David Cameron in interviews the prime minister conducted on Tuesday. Unusually, neither the name Duncan Smith, nor any quote from him was included in the release issued by the Conservative party on Tuesday morning. There have also been suggestions that more radical proposals were shelved at the last minute. The Conservative plans cited research showing jobseekers’ allowance (JSA) claimants were spending very little time each day seeking work. They pointed to two studies. The first, published by Princeton economists for the Institute for the Study of Labor, found that jobseekers in the UK spend an average of eight minutes per day looking for jobs. This compares to 41 minutes per day in the United States and 27 minutes per day in France. The Conservatives also claimed that increased numbers of imposed conditions in the UK system signalled by the introduction of JSA were shown to have increased “the rate of exit” from benefit by around 9%. A study by OECD countries found that job-search reporting and regular interviews with advisers increase the probability of getting off benefit by between 15% to 30%. The Conservative party plan said: “Those who are making every effort to look for work have nothing to fear from these proposals. But for those who until now have tried to play the system, or thought they could get away with doing the bare minimum, this is a big push to do the right thing, take up the help available and get into work.” The plans also stated: “We will also introduce a clear framework for sanctions under which the more serious the failure the longer the sanction, and the more frequent the failures the longer the sanction.” Welfare Unemployment Conservative conference 2011 Conservative conference Conservatives Iain Duncan Smith Job hunting David Cameron Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 4, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.