‘Most voters want welfare reform. Labour can’t do nothing’

Much is being said about proposed changes to the benefit system. Any movement away from the status quo is bound to raise concerns.

Of course, the public want vulnerable people to be supported but at the same time they believe those who can work should work.

Attitudes towards this issue are complex. Let’s be in no doubt – people who are too sick or disabled to work should be paid their benefits and left alone – their lives are difficult enough.

But large numbers in the current system are not in that place. They have become trapped on benefits because their needs have been neither understood or supported by successive governments or employers and once signed off on long-term sickness have no ongoing relationship or connection with DWP, therefore, losing their incentive to look for work.

Most of them can and do want to work if the conditions are right. How do I know? Because in Barnsley our Pathways to Work Commission asked them.

People are stuck in the benefits system

This has been the biggest piece of research into economic inactivity ever undertaken in the UK and 70% of those asked said they wanted to work.

They also told us the reasons why they are stuck in a benefits system not designed to help them.

Health was the biggest reason, particularly mental health in young people and physical health in the older age profiles. Caring responsibilities was another, along with transport, skills and other obstacles. Some people faced all of these barriers.

We now have over 2.8m people on long-term sickness benefits and not working in our country and 9.2m economically inactive in the UK.

We also discovered if people are inactive for more than one year it becomes even more difficult to re-engage them and this inactivity makes their health even worse.

In short, the benefits system is adding to the problem.

Under the guidance of Alan Milburn and the country’s leading experts we now have a Pathways to Work delivery plan to change this across Barnsley and South Yorkshire.

Ten thousand people off benefits and into work over the next four years, both private and public major employers and SME commitment to offer vacancies as they see the opportunity in our plan.

It has become a government trailblazer and is a model which can be rolled out nationally. This is because it adapts to local needs and at its core is a personalised support system for both people and employers which provides employer activation centres and engagement for residents in work situations before formally signing up, this de risks for both employers and the individual.

Fear of failure and loss of benefits traps people

It has many features, but it is not just another programme for the unemployed – (we have 70 of them already) and we don’t need any more.

It is public sector reform, bringing together the NHS, DWP, Combined Authority, Councils, Voluntary and Community Sectors and other providers to work together on behalf of those needing help.

Through personalised support workers or ‘system navigators’ we will mitigate and remove the barriers to work for those who need help. We will also help employers become more flexible in their recruitment and in their working practices.

It is helping to create a good employment charter for all business.

Ultimately it helps take the fear out of working for vulnerable people. But we also require the benefits system to be more flexible and a duty to engage for the economically inactive with DWP and partners.

We need people to be able to move off benefits and back in again if things don’t work out. This flexibility is being put forward in the new proposals and is very welcome.

Fear of failure in work and loss of benefits at the same time traps people in a benefits culture.

In South Yorkshire we have developed a cross-agency partnership to deliver our new model with those partners I describe. We oversee delivery at the local level as well as giving strategic countywide leadership.

We have also built into our new model the government’s health growth accelerator programme. We are using this to prevent around 7,500 people from falling out of work. Prevention is just as important as cure.

We have just begun our journey, but we are already getting people into employment.

It is a waste of talented lives

The cost to the country of increasing economic inactivity is, as we know, unsustainable. It is also a waste of talented lives.

We have to change things, so work is possible and it pays. Of course, changing the benefit system without new Pathways to Work would be inappropriate but we now have that chance.

Of course, success will take time, and it will require leadership beyond our localities. I am of the firm belief that the government should appoint an activity tsar.

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Someone to lead the roll out of Pathways to Work. Someone to champion the needs of those whose lives we seek to change. Someone to work with employers on their needs and someone to work with the government to ensure it is doing all it can.

The benefits system does need rethinking as does our support for those not working. It is a long-term project, but it is one I believe the majority of the public also want.

Many commentators have said it will define the current government. I agree because coming from a place bedevilled by economic inactivity, I know doing nothing is not an option.

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