According to senior Tories, Jobcentres are failing to get people into lasting work and should be shut down. Iain Duncan Smith is reportedly being urged by senior Tories to shut down all Jobcentres and let private companies and charities to step in to help Britain’s unemployed back to work.
The proposal, backed by allies of chancellor George Osborne, is being considered for potential inclusion in the party’s election manifesto for 2015, in what would be a radical step for Britain’s system to help people into work.
One senior Tory told The Sun: “Introducing competition into the job search market is a natural Conservative thing to do. Tailoring help from experts for what people really need will work far better than the clumsy one-size-fits-all state solution.”
A spokesperson for the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union told the Huffington Post UK: “Any failings in our social security system are entirely down to privatisation, with the work programme being the most obvious example, or a lack of staff and resources as a result of successive years of spending cuts. Jobcentres need the exact opposite of what some in the Tory party and their supporters appear to want.”
This comes as a report by David Cameron’s favourite think-tank Policy Exchange called for Jobcentres to be split up and forced to compete with charities and the private sector to help people into work.
Just over a third (36%) of Jobcentre users find sustained work because deep-rooted problems fail to be addressed, the report said, adding that they could be replaced with “Citizen Support” centres to better help jobseekers. Read more
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