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Labour promises extra £120 for workers who lose long-term jobs | Labour promises extra £120 for workers who lose long-term jobs |
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People who lose their jobs could be paid an extra £20 a week in benefit for six weeks under a Labour Government if they had been in work for four or five years. | People who lose their jobs could be paid an extra £20 a week in benefit for six weeks under a Labour Government if they had been in work for four or five years. |
Rachael Reeves, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said | |
today that she was determined to "reinforce and renew" the | |
"contributory principle" in the benefits system. Her plan could | |
increase the £71.70 a week adult rate of Jobseeker's Allowance | |
(JSA) to more than £90 a week to cushion the impact of people | |
becoming unemployed. | |
In her first major policy speech in her post, she told the IPPR | |
think tank: "We need to look at how we can better reflect records | |
of contribution in the benefits people are entitled to…In recent | |
years we've seen more people rely on the system who've not claimed | |
in years." | |
The IPPR is to study the cost of options to increase the initial | |
rate of JSA for people who have built up a record of national | |
insurance contributions. | |
Ms Reeves said: "If this can be done in a cost neutral way by | |
extending the period people need to be working and paying national | |
insurance to qualify for contributory JSA it would be a very | |
valuable step forward. | |
"A higher rate of JSA paid for the first six weeks of | |
unemployment to those who have lost their jobs after perhaps four | |
or five years in work could be a big help in cushioning the | |
immediate financial impact of redundancy and give them a better | |
chance of getting back into work and back on their feet sooner. | |
"And it would be a powerful way of restoring that understanding | |
of collective insurance against unemployment that was such an | |
important impulse behind Beveridge's original plan but which today | |
has been all but lost from sight." | |
brightcove.createExperiences(); | |
Ms Reeves confirmed plans, revealed in an interview with The | |
Independent, for all newly-unemployed people to take a "basic | |
skills test" in English, maths and computers within six weeks of | |
claiming benefit. If they failed the test and refused | |
training, they would lose their JSA. | |
Answering questions after her speech, Ms Reeves denied that the | |
jobless would be punished if they failed to pass the test after a | |
few weeks of training. She said: "We are not going to | |
penalise somebody if they struggle with English and maths." | |
The shadow Work and Pensions Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today | |
programme: "These are tough policies. We are requiring people to do | |
something for their benefits. But they are also fair, because they | |
are giving the support to people to get back to work. We have got | |
record levels of long-term youth unemployment. We need to help | |
people get the skills they need to get into work, and then stay in | |
those jobs." |