Labour party

Unemployed people who lack basic skills should be denied access to benefits unless they take up training, according to the opposition Labour party. The proposal was made by Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Rachel Reeves, in her first major speech since taking up her new post.
 
Under the plans, all new claimants of jobseeker's allowance would have to sit a basic skills test within six weeks. Those who were deemed to lack basic skills in English, maths and computing would be required to take up part-time training or lose their benefits. Labour estimates this would affect around 25,000 people a month.
 
Reeves said: 'We all know that basic skills are essential in today's jobs market, but the shocking levels of English and maths among too many jobseekers are holding them back from getting work. This traps too many jobseekers in a vicious cycle between low-paid work and benefits'.
 

The coalition government’s benefit reforms are plunging into 'chaos', according to Liam Byrne, Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary. In a speech in London he said the so-called 'welfare revolution' promised by the coalition was clearly in 'very, very serious trouble'. He pointed to failed reform of disability benefits, ineffective back-to-work programmes and looming problems over the bedroom tax. He claimed that complaints, delays and additional claimant numbers caused by bungled benefit changes had so far cost the public purse £1.4 billion.

Labour's plans for reforming the social security system – and controlling the benefits bill – have been set out by the party's leader, Ed Miliband MP. Under a 'one nation plan for social security reform', he said a Labour government would copy the coalition's policy of capping the 'structural' benefits budget during its first three years in office. The benefits system could not be exempt, he argued, from the budget discipline needed in all areas as a result of the economic situation Labour would inherit.  

MPs have voted to approve the controversial capping of benefit increases over the next three years. The Welfare Benefits Up-Rating Bill, which has been given a second reading in Parliament, provides for an increase of just 1 per cent for most working-age benefits, child benefit and certain tax credit elements in 2014-15 and 2015-16, rather than being uprated in line with inflation (in addition to similar arrangements already announced for 2013-14). Carers' benefits and certain disability-related benefits will be exempt, along with pensions.