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Labour leadership: Kendall and Burnham unveil work policies Pay 18-20 year olds full minimum wage says Burnham
(about 4 hours later)
Labour leadership contender Liz Kendall has vowed to scrap the government's welfare-to-work programme. Andy Burnham has called for 18-20 year olds to be paid the same minimum wage as older workers as he and other Labour candidates addressed a union hustings.
Ms Kendall branded the scheme - which pays firms for getting people back into work - a "failed experiment in welfare privatisation". He said he would scrap the lower rate for young adult workers, currently paid £1.37 less than older colleagues, as an "hour's work deserves an hour's pay".
Instead the task of getting people off benefits should be handed to cities and regions, the Labour MP said. But he rejected calls for the main rate to rise to £10 an hour by 2020.
And fellow candidate Andy Burnham will urge employment tribunal fees to be axed, ahead of a hustings later. Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper said the Low Pay Commission should be left to decide on differential rates.
Ms Kendall, Mr Burnham and the two other candidates in the contest - Yvette Cooper and Jeremy Corbyn - are taking part in a debate with trade union members. And Jeremy Corbyn said the lower rate was "very strange".
The four MPs are competing to succeed Ed Miliband as leader, with the election result due to be announced in September. The four candidates vying to succeed Ed Miliband have been questioned by union members at an event hosted by the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation, one of series of hustings taking place over the summer before September's election.
In a speech in the City of London prior to the hustings, Ms Kendall said Labour must support enterprise and entrepreneurs but also address what she claimed was the "unnecessary suffering" being caused to those who face the biggest barriers to finding work. The event was preceded by sniping between the rival candidates' camps with MP John Woodcock, a key ally of Ms Kendall's, claiming he had been briefed against after warning of the dangers of Labour electing a "continuity Miliband" candidate.
Major changes, she suggested, are needed to the Work Programme, the government's flagship welfare-to work scheme which in 2011 replaced a variety of schemes which existed under the previous Labour government. Ms Kendall said Labour faced a huge task getting back into power and would only do so when it regained the trust of people on the economy and was able to offer a vision of a "better life", saying these were not exclusively "Tory values".
It gives intensive support, work experience and training to those on Jobseekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and other benefits for up to two years, with private, public and voluntary sector providers paid by results in terms of job outcomes.
According to the House of Commons library, between June 2011 and March 2015, 1.73 million people were referred to the Work Programme in Great Britain and 432,610 found some form of work as a result.
Analysis by BBC Political Correspondent Iain WatsonAnalysis by BBC Political Correspondent Iain Watson
Liz Kendall had two objectives in mind in her speech this morning- further differentiating herself from her Labour rivals by putting a strong and positive emphasis on the need for fiscal responsibility and, secondly, trying to burnish her credentials as the candidate the Conservatives fear most. Liz Kendall had two objectives in mind in her speech this morning - further differentiating herself from her Labour rivals by putting a strong and positive emphasis on the need for fiscal responsibility and, secondly, trying to burnish her credentials as the candidate the Conservatives fear most.
As one of her supporters said, she is attempting to avoid being the Opposition George Osborne would want Labour to be. So there was a straightforward admission that a lot of taxpayers money is spent - in tax credits - to subsidise low pay. As one of her supporters said, she is attempting to avoid being the opposition George Osborne would want Labour to be. So there was a straightforward admission that a lot of taxpayers money is spent - in tax credits - to subsidise low pay.
And there was the outline of a solution -asking the Low Pay Commission to encourage more employers to pay the living wage. But there's a feeling, even amongst some Blairites, that Liz Kendall is still a work in progress.
But there's a feeling, even amongst some Blairites, that Liz Kendall is still a work in progress. One Labour-supporting audience member said: "She is saying all the right things about the scale of the defeat, but I am still not convinced she is the right person to be saying it. I admire her courage, but I am not sure she has the authority to be leader." One Labour-supporting audience member said: "She is saying all the right things about the scale of the defeat, but I am still not convinced she is the right person to be saying it. I admire her courage, but I am not sure she has the authority to be leader."
She didn't seize the opportunity to put more distance between herself and Ed Miliband on some issues and on the story of the day - Greece - she was clear she would like a deal to prevent Grexit, but failed to say whether ultimately she would urge a Yes vote in their referendum. She didn't seize the opportunity to put more distance between herself and Ed Miliband on some issues. Nonetheless, she was calm and assured under sustained questioning and delivered her core message with confidence. She may have to show more confidence, though, in departing from her script.
Nonetheless, she was calm and assured under sustained questioning and delivered her core message with confidence. She may have to show more confidence, though, in departing from her script.
But her supporters are convinced she is making the political weather and are portraying her opponents as more of the same.But her supporters are convinced she is making the political weather and are portraying her opponents as more of the same.
But Ms Kendall claimed the programme "lamentably failed to help the long-term sick and disabled return to work" and oversight of the scheme needed to be taken out of the hands of officials in Whitehall and given to local consortiums. "People need to think about who is the leadership candidate that isn't just going to argue for a little bit of change, who is going to face up to the scale of the challenge, who is going to be the candidate that the Tories really fear because they are facing head on people's concerns about their money, about welfare and have a properly broad pitch."
"Labour's replacement for the work programme... will be designed and led by our towns, cities and county regions," she said. "They know their labour markets best." Despite the party's heavy defeat last month, Mr Burnham said Labour must "build on" the manifesto that it stood upon rather than disown it completely.
"And they can build partnerships with local employers, housing associations and other agencies far better than any national programme. I want local areas taking control and keeping some of the money they save by helping people back to work." "It had more to say to my constituents than any other manifesto I had stood on," he said. "But the point is it didn't have enough to say to the whole country. So we don't rip it up, we build on it."
The government argues that more flexibility, local autonomy and financial incentives have been built into the Work Programme than any previous back-to-work scheme but critics say this has led providers to target easier-to-help individuals. 'Labour values'
Andy Burnham will announce plans for a review of charges for workers seeking to take their employers to a tribunal. Urging changes to minimum wage rates, the shadow health secretary said it was unfair to pay 18-20 year olds less than the full minimum wage, currently £6.50 an hour.
The review would be led by former director of public prosecutions Sir Keir Starmer, who became a Labour MP in May, Mr Burnham will announce. He said he would scrap the lower rate, currently £5.13, if he was prime minister, while keeping existing rates for under-18s and apprentices. He said he would also stick with a manifesto commitment to raise the main adult rate to £8 an hour by the end of the Parliament in the face of union calls for a higher £10 rate.
Mr Burnham will say the fees, which can see claimants pay £1,200 to secure a full hearing, were making it harder for employees on short-term and irregular contracts to protect themselves in an increasingly casualised jobs market. "It is hard enough for young people to get on in life, what are we making it harder? Why are we pulling the rug from under them."
"Workers with genuine grievances are denied access to justice because of their inability to pay the fees," he will say. "The fees are a barrier that puts justice out of reach for the workers who need it most." Ms Cooper said the party must choose a leader who could "look like a prime minister from the start" not just an opposition leader. "We have to make sure that is about being a Labour prime minister and being proud of Labour values," she said.
He will say the review, in consultation with unions and businesses, would safeguard the "basic human right of access to justice regardless of ability to pay". And Mr Corbyn said Labour must oppose all spending and welfare cuts announced in next week's Budget.
"Austerity is a code word for greater inequality," he said. "The 100 richest people in this country own the equivalent of 30% of the wealth of the rest of the population. That is grotesque inequality and it is getting worse."
In a speech in the City of London before the hustings, Ms Kendall called for major changes to the government's programme to help the long-term unemployed find work and said the Low Pay Commission should encourage more employers to pay a living wage.
Mr Burnham, meanwhile, also announced plans for a review of charges for workers seeking to take their employers to a tribunal.