BBC
Professional coaches will visit seriously ill patients in mental health services to try to get them back to work, the government has announced.
Trials by jobs advisers giving advice on CVs and interviews in hospitals have produced “spectacular results”, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall told the BBC.
She said a wider rollout would be part of her drive to reduce the UK's annual disability and incapacity benefits bill. But disability rights activists have expressed concerns about the proposals.
The cost of these benefits is expected to rise by nearly a third over the next four to five years, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
It predicted that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would spend £63 billion by 2028-29, a jump from £48 billion in 2023-24.
“I want to see those costs come down, because I want people to be able to work, continue their work, which is good for them,” Kendall told BBC News in an exclusive interview.
She said some people would lose their benefits, saying “the benefits system can have a real impact on whether you encourage or discourage work.”
Kendall praised projects in Leicester and at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, south-east London, which offered employment support – such as CV writing and interview training – to people seriously mentally ill, including in hospital wards.
“It’s for people with serious mental health issues,” she said. “And the results of getting people to work have been dramatic, and the evidence clearly shows that it is better for their mental health.”
She added: “We really need to focus on integrating these employment counselors into our mental health services. It's better for people. It's better for the economy. We just need to think differently.”
The DWP is preparing a new jobs white paper, to be published at the time of the Budget and Spending Review later this month, which will set out its reform plans.
However, Disability Rights UK has raised some concerns about the proposed policies.
He criticized the DWP's initial July report on the proposals for making no reference to the Equality Act, flexible working or the Access to Work Scheme and only one reference to reasonable adjustments.
“We are really struggling with health issues”
Kendall said she believed British society had become “sicker” and that the UK was “the only G7 country whose employment rate has not returned to pre-pandemic levels”.
According to official figures published yesterday for the period from June to August, 21.8% of people are considered “economically inactive”, that is to say they are aged 16 to 64, they are not are not working and are not looking for work.
This figure fell slightly between May and July, but remains near its highest level in ten years after increasing during the pandemic.
“Obviously we are really dealing with health issues,” Kendall added.
“I don’t think the £30 billion extra spend on sickness and disability benefits is because people are feeling ‘a bit down’,” a reference to the words of his predecessor Mel Stride.
She also urged employers to “think differently” about workers with mental health issues to provide flexibility to support and retain workers with health issues.
Kendall also said the BBC's job centers would be transformed by merging them with the national careers service and using AI.
She suggested face-to-face working would remain for people “who really need it”, but “more personalized support using AI” for others, expanding on an idea introduced by her predecessor Stride.
She also suggested that giving powers to regional mayors would better match the unemployed with vacancies at the local level.
It echoes calls from Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to hand control of job centers to his regional government.
