Jeremy Hunt warns benefits cut could hit unemployed
The chancellor says people will have their benefits cut off if they fail to follow new rules on unemployment and job seeking. Jeremy Hunt adds this will "permanently increase the size of the economy". Thousands with mobility and mental health issues have been told to work from home. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 But post-pandemic, we still have over 7 million adults of working age excluding students who
00:07 are not working, despite 1 million vacancies in the economy. Many can and want to work,
00:14 but our system makes that too hard. In the spring Budget, I announced 30 hours of free
00:21 childcare for working parents of one- to two-year-olds. That plan, still opposed by the party opposite,
00:29 starts rolling out in April. It will help tens of thousands of parents return to work
00:35 without having to worry about damaging their career prospects. Today, we focus on helping
00:40 those with sickness or disability and the long-term unemployed. Every year, we sign
00:47 off over 100,000 people on to benefits, with no requirement to look for work because of
00:53 sickness or disability. That waste of potential is wrong economically and wrong morally.
01:02 With the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, last week I announced our back-to-work plan.
01:06 We will reform the FitNote process so that treatment, rather than time off, becomes the
01:12 default. We will reform the work capability assessment to reflect greater flexibility
01:17 and availability of home working after the pandemic, and we will spend £1.3 billion
01:23 over the next five years to help nearly 700,000 people with health conditions find jobs. More
01:30 than 180,000 people will be helped through the universal support programme, and nearly
01:36 500,000 more people will be offered treatment for mental health conditions and employment
01:41 support. If, after 18 months of intensive support, jobseekers have not found a job,
01:47 we will roll out a programme requiring them to take part in mandatory work placement to
01:51 increase their skills and improve their employability. If they choose not to engage with the work
01:57 search process for six months, we will close their case and stop their benefits.
02:05 Taken together with the Labour supply measures I announced in the spring, the OBR says we
02:15 will increase the number of people in work by around 200,000 at the end of the forecast
02:22 period, permanently increasing the size of the economy.