Get Britain Working - White Paper

Our country’s greatest asset is its people. However, the talents of too many are being wasted because of spiralling economic inactivity. We’ve got 2.8 million people locked out of work due to long-term sickness. 1 in 8 of our young people are not in education, employment or training. 9 million adults lack the basic skills they need to get on.

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Behind these statistics are human stories played out time and again across the country. Young people with mental health problems, waiting for treatment, or lacking the basic qualifications they need to get a job and kick-start their career. People in their 50s and 60s struggling with chronic pain like bad joints, with women often caring for elderly relatives, who have huge experience to offer employers but far too few opportunities. The school-leaver let down because employment support is not designed to help them seize today’s opportunities.

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This is not good enough for people across the country who cannot access the support they need to improve their living standards and build a better life. It is bad for employers who are desperate to recruit but cannot find people with the skills to fill well-paying roles. It is bad for the economy and the taxpayer, driving a rising benefits bill.

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Nothing less than radical reform is required. This White Paper sets out a fundamentally different approach, alongside the detail of our plan for £240 million of investment. Rather than writing people off, our reforms target and tackle the root causes behind why people are not working, joining up help and support, based on the needs of local people and local places.

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This means fixing the NHS, cutting waiting lists so people can get back to health and back to work, as well as having a greater focus on preventing people becoming ill in the first place.

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It means transforming a department for welfare into a genuine department for work through a new national jobs and careers service, focused on people’s skills and careers not only monitoring and managing benefit claims.

It means mobilising Mayors and councils to join up local work, health and skills support in ways that meet the needs of their area.

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It means building a Youth Guarantee, so every young person has a real chance of either earning or learning.

With our series of trailblazers around the country, we will begin to set the blueprint for this new approach to reducing economic inactivity.

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It also means supporting employers to employ people with health conditions, and to keep them in the workplace, as well as having a health and disability benefits system that encourages people to engage with support and try work.

This White Paper is part of wider government action to spread opportunity and fix the foundations of our economy. This includes launching Skills England to create a shared national plan to boost the nation’s skills, creating more good jobs through our modern Industrial Strategy, and strengthening employment rights through our Plan to Make Work Pay.

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Our plan to Get Britain Working sets us on a path to bring down economic inactivity levels and takes the first steps to delivering our long-term ambition to achieve an 80% employment rate.

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This is not only a mission for the whole government. It also needs genuine partnership with and between, the new jobs and careers service, Mayors and councils, trade unions, private, voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations, the NHS, employers and schools, colleges and universities. This is how, together, we can build a healthier, wealthier nation - driving up employment and opportunity, skills and productivity – while driving down the benefit bill.

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Above all, this is about how we ensure everyone, regardless of their background, age, ethnicity, or where they live, has the opportunities they need to achieve and thrive, to succeed and flourish.

Helping people into decent, well-paid jobs and giving our children and young people the best opportunities to get on in life. This is how we get Britain working and growing again.

The Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer

The Rt Hon Liz Kendall MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

The Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP, Secretary of State for Education

The Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care