The government claims that the Get Britain Working White Paper sets out a plan for “radical reform” of employment opportunities, especially for the 2.8 million people “locked out of work due to long-term sickness”. But how much difference is the White Paper likely to make in reality to the lives of disabled claimants?
Whether you are fearful that you will be forced into attempting work that you cannot possibly manage or hopeful that changes will be made to the labour market and benefit rules that would allow you to do some work, the White Paper’s provisions are potentially important in how the future unfolds.
So, what exactly has the government got planned and how will it make a difference?
Four priorities
The White Paper sets out four priority areas that it intends to deal with in order to get disabled claimants into work.
1 Improving the health of the population.
2 Mobilising local leadership to tackle economic inactivity.
3 Supporting employers to promote healthy workplaces.
4 Reforming the system of health and disability benefits.
Improving health
Under this heading, the White Paper says Labour will provide an additional 8,500 new mental health staff and 40,000 extra elective appointments each week.
They say this will eventually reduce waiting lists so that 92% of people should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment.
However, this is not aimed solely at disabled claimants and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates that halving the waiting list over the next five years would only lead to 25,000 additional people being in work.
The reality seems to be that most people’s health issues are complex and it will take more than a knee replacement to get them straight back to work.
The government also plans to increase the number of people completing NHS Talking Therapies treatment for common mental health conditions by 384,000 and increase the number of sessions. Much of the treatment will be Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
In addition, they will also increase the number of people accessing Individual Placement Support (IPS), which helps claimants with severe mental illness find and keep employment, by an additional 140,000 by 2029.
But the OBR estimated that these measures would boost employment by just 20,000 in 2028/29.
Labour is also collaborating with Eli Lilly to study how weight loss drugs can improve health and obesity-related absences.
Aside from that, there are changes to the soft-drinks levy to help combat obesity and the introduction of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to reduce smoking related illness.
But there is nothing in the improving health agenda that is likely to make a dramatic difference to employment rates amongst disabled claimants.
Mobilising local leadership
The basis of priority two is moving employment funds from central government to local government where, the theory is, people will have a better idea of how they need to be spent to deal with local unemployment issues.
Every local area will produce a “Get Britain Working Plan” and the government will devolve £115 million in 2025/26 to deliver a new supported employment programme called Connect To Work, which will “support up to 100,000 people a year”.
Other initiatives include “Workwell” which involves Integrated Care Boards, local authorities, Jobcentre Plus and other local organisations helping to keep people with health conditions in work or to get them back into the workforce quickly.
Plus Alan Milburn’s Pathways to Work Commission will begin a “proof of concept” scheme taking “a whole-system approach to supporting people who are economically inactive”.
The reality is, however, that there is relatively little new funding for these schemes and they are unlikely to result in any dramatic increases in employment rates for disabled claimants.
Supporting employers
Priority three consists of an independent review into the role of employers in creating and maintaining healthy and inclusive workplaces, which will report back in the summer of 2025. The review will be led by an as yet unchosen person “with strong business experience”.
The probability of such a review ending with anything more effective than voluntary codes of practice and Disability Confident type schemes seems very slim.
Benefit reform
Under priority four, Labour says it will reform the system of health and disability benefits so that it is simpler, trusted, moves away from binary categories of fit for work, or not fit for work and allows disabled claimants to try work without fear of losing benefit.
Unfortunately, no more details are available. Instead, claimants will have to wait for a Green Paper in the Spring to find out what precise changes Labour is contemplating.
Little to fear
There seems to be little for disabled claimants to fear in the White Paper. Taking part in any health-related initiatives, for example, will be entirely voluntary. But equally there seems little to celebrate for claimants hoping to move into employment – the numbers being supported appear small.
Certainly, the first three priorities will not greatly increase disabled claimants’ employment rates or cut the benefits bill. Indeed, many claimants may not even be aware they have happened.
This leaves priority four, the changes to health and disability benefits, to bear an immensely heavy weight if there are to be increases in employment rates.
So it is the Spring Green Paper, rather than this White Paper, that disabled claimants will have to look to in order to find out what the future has in store.
Unfortunately, the Green Paper will also be the source of the £3 billion in benefits cuts that Labour has committed to over the next four years. The chances of those cuts being driven by a surge of disabled claimants moving into full-time employment seem, judging by this White Paper, very slim indeed.
