It’s not clear what these changes mean, but the wording suggests new eligibility requirements and conditionalities.
“Our system is underpinned by rights and responsibilities: those who can work should work, and those who do not meet their obligations will be penalized,” the 125-page document continues.
In May, Labour’s Alison McGovern said “big changes” were needed to improve the welfare system, including “changes to PIP (Personal Independence Payment)”. Labour postponed a decision on PIP payments until after the election.
Mr White said the system needed a “radical overhaul and a radical injection of empathy and humanity”.
“Promises to discuss disability benefits and carer-related debts would be welcomed, as would a commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to guarantee the rights of people with disabilities,” he said.
“Our welfare benefits are currently the lowest in Europe and in this election disabled people are looking to a party that cares and wants to understand our lives and what we need, rather than continuing to cut the little funding we do have.”
The Conservatives recently announced plans to eradicate so-called “sick pay culture” and help benefit recipients with health problems get into employment, and supporters hope Labour’s reforms will be more compassionate, but few details are yet available.
And the party’s failure to remove limits on benefits for second children has left activists in despair.
“We need to get serious about family incomes. Unless the two-child limit and benefit cap are removed and child benefit rates are increased, there will be no real change for the four million children living in poverty,” said Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group.
Reform of the labor access system
Labour promises to reform the access to work system, tackle the backlog of applications and “develop plans to help more disabled people and those with health conditions get into work”.
This is a positive step: employment rates for working-age disabled people are 28% lower than those without a disability, a difference which Citizens Advice attributes to “inadequate employment support”.
“Despite the barriers and challenges they face, many disabled people would like to work: 22% of economically inactive disabled people would like to find work, compared to 15% of their non-disabled peers,” the charity said.
According to Labour’s manifesto pledge, disabled people will not be subject to “instant benefit reassessment”. [their new job] “It’s not working.”
“We believe that the work capacity assessment is not working and needs to be reformed or replaced, with appropriate plans to support disabled people into work,” the report continues.
James Taylor, strategic director at disability equality charity Scope, welcomed the pledges but said they needed to be “backed up by action”.
“Pledges to improve return-to-work testing and work opportunities are welcome, but we have been in similar situations before. Reforms often mean cuts and sanctions and we need to see real change,” he said.
“We want the next government to tackle the extra costs of disability, change how we think about disability, and ensure that people who want to work can get to work. To fix our broken welfare system, all parties must be committed to creating an equal future.”
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Disability Pay Gap Report
Labour will introduce a ‘right to full equal pay for disabled people’. The disability pay gap is currently around 14.6%.
“Building on gender pay gap reporting, we will introduce disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting for large employers,” the manifesto states.
Mr White described the policy as one of the few “surprises” in Labour’s manifesto.
Ensuring access to training for young people
One in eight young people is not in education, employment or training and those with low qualifications and poor mental health are particularly disadvantaged.
“Labour will bring together existing funding and entitlements to guarantee every 18 to 21 year old has access to training, an apprenticeship or support to find work, reducing the number of young people who are not studying or earning.”
The Social Market Foundation welcomed these commitments but is seeking more information.
“We’re expecting political attention to further education, vocational training and adult retraining, but while the aim to build a world-class skills system is clear, Labour seems keen to keep its ambitions under wraps,” said Dani Payne, senior researcher at SMF.
“For a party with such a big lead in the opinion polls, it’s disappointing that there are no really promising policy commitments. But if it means plans are still to be decided, then they should consider opening up student living fees funding to further education students as part of the integration of further and higher education.”
Reassessing workers’ rights
Starmer has long promised to overhaul workers’ rights if his party comes to power, including announcing a “New Platform for Workers” in 2022.
Labour’s manifesto pledges include “banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, ending dismissal and re-employment and introducing fundamental rights from day one, such as parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal”.
Trade unions are broadly in support of the changes but some have warned the promises have been watered down. Zero-hours contracts will not be banned outright, for example – workers will be able to stay on them if they want. Unity general secretary Sharon Graham said it had been “watered down to almost nothing”.
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Increased minimum wages – especially in the social welfare sector
“Labour will ensure that the minimum wage is a truly liveable wage,” Mr Starmer promised today.
If elected, the party would change the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission to take into account the cost of living, and end discriminatory age brackets so that all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage.
Labour has also promised to raise the minimum wage in the social care sector – the manifesto says all care workers in England are entitled to at least £12 an hour, as part of efforts to improve recruitment in the social care sector and ease pressure on the NHS.
Caroline Abrahams, charities director at Age UK, said the solution was welcome but not a silver bullet.
“If Labour forms the next government, new ministers will be under huge pressure to act quickly to deliver on the ‘plans for plans’ outlined so far and to advance fair pay deals for care workers. This work is important and welcome, but it also represents the only concrete proposals to drive improvement in the short term,” she said.
“We all agree that it has taken years for the social welfare system to degenerate into the shaky system it is today, and that there is no magic solution to turn it around, but repeated delays and failures to reform have worn us to the point where patience is wearing thin.”
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