Labour launches review of ‘future challenges for welfare state’

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne has today announced details of Labour’s review of “future challenges for the welfare state”. This working group will inform the wider economic policy review coordinated by Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls.

The Shadow Work and Pensions review will cover:

• How Britain returns to full employment in every part of Britain by renewing the opportunity – and obligation – to work if you can.
• How Britain strengthens the ‘something for something’ deal at the heart of the welfare state, and helps working families, especially the squeezed middle get on in their careers, and manage family pressures like child-care.
• How Britain ensures fairness for those in older age with simpler, fairer ways of rewarding saving for the long-term.

Announcing the review, Byrne said:

“Getting people back to work is the only way we can afford the investment we need in making Britain more competitive on the international stage and a stronger society here at home. That’s why we’re asking – how do we achieve full employment once again, in every corner of our country?

“The welfare state has to change in the years ahead. It has to be affordable on the one hand, and fairer on the other. We need a stronger sense that it is a something for something deal, where we support those in need, but where what you get out reflects what you put in.”

Whilst in many ways the annoucnement of this review amounts to a restatement of the party’s recent policies on welfare – and in particular the need to get people “back to work” and off benefits – it’s interesting that the party has unambiguously stated the need for “full employment”.

Full employment is something that we didn’t hear much of in the New Labour years. It implies 0% unemployment (or no cyclical unemployment), and I’m sure both Balls and Miliband surely know the full meaning of such phrasing. It’s unlikely that this was a slip of the tongue.