GOVERNMENT TO TRACK BENEFIT CLAIMANTS’ ATTENDANCE AT INTERVIEWS AND JOB FAIRS Digital tools to be used
The government has announced plans to remove benefits and step up monitoring of welfare recipients in an effort to bring more people into work.
Job seekers will have benefits such as free prescriptions and legal aid removed if they’re judged not to be looking for work under the chancellor’s Back to Work Plan which aims to bring 1.1 million people back into the workforce.
Under the plans, “digital tools” will be used to “track” people’s attendance at interviews and jobs fairs.
Those who have been placed for six-months on an open-ended social welfare sanction – having not complied with a condition of their receiving benefits, such as attending an interview – will be moved to receiving universal credit, a slightly lower payment, and will no longer get legal aid and have their prescriptions paid for.
No one should receive full jobseekers allowance for 18 months unless they have taken support from a Jobcentre, according to the Back to Work Plan.
There were 300,000 people out of work for more than a year in the three months to July this year who could be affected by the policy.