Universal Credit rule change could see benefit claimants lose over £1,000

Recipients of state support could be fined for failing to attending intensive two-week employment course

Britain's secretary of state for work and pensions Mel Stride (AP)

Britons who currently claim Universal Credit could be penalised by having their benefits revoked if they fail to comply with new Department for Work and Pensions requirements being trialled as part of a “carrot-and-stick” approach to getting people back into employment.

The rule change would compel claimants to attend daily face-to-face appointments at their local Jobcentre over an intensive two-week period to strategise their search for work.

Anyone who fails to attend the sessions faces losing their monthly allowance of £334.91 as a penalty, according to The Times, with the extent of the sanctions they face (administered via the existing system) depending on the number of appointments they miss.

Penalties could be issued for a maximum of three months, meaning the claimant could lose out on £1,004.73 in state support in total if they are deemed to be a repeat offender, no small consideration amid the present cost of living crisis.

The pilot programme is currently being tested in four regions – Crawley in West Sussex, Pontefract in West Yorkshire, Partick in Glasgow and Coalville in Leicestershire – but could be rolled out nationally if it is thought to deliver results.

“Evidence shows that the longer a person is out of work the harder it is for them to return, and it is at this 13-week point that a claimant’s likelihood of securing employment begins to decrease,” said Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, justifying the new hardline approach.

“This additional Jobcentre support will both improve claimants’ prospects of finding more work at a time of cost of living pressures and boost economic growth by helping more people move towards and enter the labour market.”

Mr Stride added that those who are “gainfully” self-employed, awaiting work-capability assessments or are required to undertake less than 35 hours a week of “work search activity” will be excluded, as will those who are already exempt from searching for jobs.

A DWP spokesperson said: “We are always looking at new and innovative ways to support people with different needs to find and succeed in employment.

“In the first half of 2022 we supported half a million benefit claimants into work and our recent changes to Universal Credit will build on this by providing hundreds of thousands more with intensive support to get better-paid work and boost long-term prospects.”

There are currently approximiately 1.27m unemployed people in Britain, accounting for 3.7 per cent of the working age population, and a further 9m not in work or looking for a job, according to Office for National Statistics figures, with the number of people retiring early or displaying “economic inactivity” growing since the pandemic.

Rishi Sunak has pledged to address the situation, declaring that “we need to look at how our welfare system is operating” and ask whether it is “incentivising people who can be to be in work”.

Another Conservative plan to address employment involves stationing job coaches in GPs’ surgeries as part of a bid to goad the over-50s into “getting off the golf course” and returning to the daily grind.