Universal credit claimants face tough sanctions in UK job crackdown
Unemployed workers will be forced to take up a job in any sector or face swift financial sanctions under a crackdown designed to fill hundreds of thousands of vacancies in sectors from social care to construction, ministers have announced.
Claimants will be given just four weeks – down from three months – to find a job within their preferred sector. After that point, if they fail to make “reasonable efforts” to secure a job or turn down any offer, they will have part of their universal credit payment withdrawn under a tightening of existing Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) policy.
The move, which is part of an initiative to get 500,000 people into work by June and fill 1.2m job vacancies nationally, comes as Boris Johnson seeks to reassert control over the political agenda amid the “partygate” crisis.
The Way to Work campaign was flagged up by an embattled Johnson at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday as evidence that the government was focused on the Covid recovery – leading to opposition claims that it was an attempt to distract from his political woes.
Labour’s Alison McGovern, the shadow employment minister, said: “This announcement has more to do with trying to save the prime minister’s job than supporting people into work. It’s just tinkering at the edges – long-term unemployment is 60% higher than before the pandemic.”
Cracking down on the unemployed has long been regarded as popular with many voters, although welfare experts said that any rise in levels of benefit sanctions could backfire as low-income families struggle with the cost of living crisis.
Currently work-ready unemployment benefit claimants have three months to find a job in their preferred sector – typically their area of expertise – before
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