Employment - what we think:
Vast numbers of people are now flowing onto benefits because of the recession. Turning Point is working to make sure that this doesn’t mean those people who were unemployed even during the time of economic growth get left at the back of the queue for support.
We want the Government to:
- Take urgent steps to ensure that the UK does not end up with ‘two tiers’ of unemployed people: those who are fairly well skilled and remain near to the job market; and those who have never been close to work and will be marginalised even further because of the recession.
- Give providers the right incentives to work with anyone who is referred to their door, including those who are unlikely to find jobs immediately and need significant specialist support. One way of doing this would be to use a ‘profiling’ tool which picks out the people who are hardest to help and give providers extra funds to support these people.
- Provide generational services which target the children of benefits claimants with meaningful activity, work experience and any support services they need before they reach school leaving age.