DWP accused of 'scare tactics' in plan to 'get Britain working again'

The new Labour Party government has been warned against ‘scare tactics’ after revealing Jobcentres reform plan to ‘get Britain working’. The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) has announced a huge shake-up to Jobcentres across the UK in a bid to get more people into work.

Tom Pollard, head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation, said: “It feels like they’re trying to shift away from a tick-box culture in Jobcentres, trying to focus more on offering genuine support and focusing on the quality of work, rather than just getting people into any job. Alongside that, the moves to devolve support down to local areas and try to join up support around health, work and skills, all of that is really welcome.

“It will be a struggle to turn that culture around. We’ve had 15 years, if not more, of running things in a certain way that’s very procedural and very tick-boxy, and there has been a lot of emphasis on people meeting strict, prescriptive requirements. I think a shift away will be difficult to achieve, but the ambition is welcome.”

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“It’s a shame that there still seems to be this pressure to talk tough and to focus on what happens when people don’t engage,” Pollard said. “They need to be aware that rhetoric around cracking down on people undermines efforts to engage with people. If you want people to see the service as something different, and you want them to see it as a genuine offer of support, it doesn’t help if what they’re hearing is threats.”

Catherine Parsons, who oversees Big Issue’s specialist employability service Big Issue Recruit, agreed, saying: “Government scare tactics will only exacerbate Britain’s work crisis, not solve it. We know that the steep rise in anxiety and mental health problems in young people has had a direct impact on their ability to find and retain good jobs.

“The new looming threat of having their benefits axed should they fail to summon the mental strength to accept work or training will only continue the vicious cycle of failure that has seen economic inactivity and the welfare bill spiralling out of control in recent years. Until the government invests in ethical, empathetic, end-to-end employment support like Big Issue Recruit, any attempt to ‘get Britain working’ won’t work.”