Here’s what new job reforms mean for people turning to food banks

A lot of the key elements were confirmed in the Autumn Budget and previous announcements:

• A ‘place-based’ approach to employment support: This includes eight ‘trailblazer’ (i.e. local) sites testing a joined up approach to work, health, and skills support (backed by £125 million) and a new ‘Connect to Work’ programme to match disabled people and people with health conditions to local vacancies (£115 million funding).
• A new ‘youth guarantee’, so every 18 to 21-year old in England can access an apprenticeship, training, education, or job-seeking support, including eight ‘youth trailblazer’ sites testing a local approach to matching young people to opportunities for education, training, and work (£45 million will go to these).
• Overhauling jobcentre support, bringing together local jobcentres and the National Careers Service into a new a new National Jobs and Careers Service, and improving the digital services, using new technology to provide better information and more online support to people preparing for and seeking work (backed by £55 million).

The White Paper also sets out further detail – and there are some promising themes.

Bringing employers into the picture

There’ll be a review of the role of employers to help sick and disabled people enter and, crucially, stay in work. That should mean looking more closely at how jobs are designed and linking with employment support to provide clearer pathways to work. It should also mean looking at how employers need to adapt to help sick and disabled people remain in work – or, after a period of absence, return to work. 

This part of the puzzle has been long overlooked. Despite initiatives like the Disability Confident employer scheme and the underused, clunky Access to Work scheme, the disability employment gap remains shockingly high. That gap won’t be closed by the government alone, or by disabled people facing impossible barriers to work. Employers need to step up.

Listening to young people and disabled people

The new proposals also include advisory panels for young people and for disabled people. At Trussell, we’ve long called for the UK government to work with and alongside people with lived experience to shape policy reforms. Their voices have often been excluded. One to watch, but this should be a first step to a more inclusive approach to policy reform. This can’t be a one-off – we need to see engagement continue when policies are rolled out, and improvements informed by young people and disabled people affected.

Improving jobcentre staff skills – though not staff numbers

The White Paper proposes new ‘coaching academies’ to move towards more flexible support for jobseekers. We know more personalised employment support and investment in staff skills is sorely needed if we’re to help more people into work and reduce their need for emergency food. Previous reviews have found work coaches are particularly ill equipped to provide specialist support, especially for disabled people.

However, we also know that work coaches are already very stretched. Adding to their workload, particularly where people’s circumstances are more complex and need more tailored support, may not be manageable with existing staff levels.

The government must still build trust – and financial security

The UK government – and Department for Work and Pensions specifically – has a mountain to climb in terms of rebuilding trust in its support and services. Too many people view jobcentres as a source of fear rather than support. This has been fuelled both by the rhetoric of successive generations of politicians, with policy leaning heavily on punitive sanctions to drive engagement. There are three key ways in which the jury is out in terms of how far these proposals will boost employment:

First, it’s unclear how jobcentre staff will consistently provide more flexible, personalised support. There is a long history of variable jobcentre staff support. We can’t rely on work coach judgement alone. And we won’t move away from a ‘tick box’ approach without changing what drives it. The current system of jobseeking rules – which are frequently rigid and inappropriate when people face additional barriers to work – must also be addressed. Placing more people at risk of sanctions will do nothing to boost engagement with new employment support, or people’s readiness to prepare for, or seek work.

The White Paper outlines some useful steps – testing fewer in person appointments, reducing the frequency of jobcentre meetings, and reviewing the claimant commitment which determines job-seeking conditions. But we’re yet to see a clear commitment on what will change for people seeking understanding and support, rather than box-ticking compliance.

Second, there’s still a glaring gap over what the UK government intends to do on incapacity and disability benefits. It’s committed to the same levels of cuts to support for disabled people who are not in work announced under the previous government (worth over £400 a month to the hundreds of thousands affected), though it has not set out how. Proposals are due early next year, but it’s difficult to see how they will avoid further cuts to disabled people’s already precarious incomes. Again, this doesn’t help either trust and engagement in the new support offer, and risks worsening people’s health, moving them further from the workplace.

Third, wider government plans like the child poverty strategy and upcoming Universal Credit review must include investment in social security, if we’re to reduce economic inactivity in the long-term. The Secretary of State rightly recognises the vital role that health plays in ensuring people can prepare for and enter work. The same is true of financial security. Completing training, and doing it well, becomes much harder if you can’t put food on the table or pay the energy bills. Managing health conditions is much harder if you’re on one meal a day or can’t heat your home. The basic rate of social security is at a 40-year low. We must bring this rate up to a level where we can all afford things like food, toiletries, and clothes. We do not get a healthier, wealthier nation without ensuring we can all afford the essentials.

Overall, the White Paper puts the employment support system on a much more positive path, towards more inclusive and appropriate employment support for groups that have been excluded for too long. When disabled people are three times more likely to face hunger than others, that matters. But it must be part of wider updates to make social security a true bedrock on which to end the need for food banks for good.