Social welfare claimants will have to sign a contract of rights and responsibilities guaranteeing they will co-operate with offers of training and employment as part of the government's Pathways to Work initiative to combat unemployment. Claimants will also face sanctions if they fail to do so.
The strategy launched today contains a range of measures aimed at reducing joblessness and equipping people to get back to work as soon as possible. It is particularly targeted at the long-term unemployed.
439,500 people are currently on the Live Register. 183,800, or around 42%, of those have been out of work for more than 12 months.
The Government strategy contains five "pathways to work": regular engagement with the unemployed; targeted activation of places and opportunities; measures to encourage the unemployed to take up opportunities; measures to encourage employers to recruit more people from the Live Register; and a streamlining of institutions to integrate the welfare training and job placement functions.
By 2015, the Government wants to see at least 75,000 of the long-term unemployed moving into employment.
It aims to cut the average length of time on the Live Register from 21 months to 12, and to increase the percentage of jobs filled with candidates from the Live Register.
New claimants will be profiled at the time of registration to establish what supports they need to get them back to work as soon as possible. But they will also have to sign a contract undertaking to co-operate with reasonable training interview and job offers. If they do not, they face sanctions - including benefit cuts.
One-third of places on community employment schemes will be made into shorter, more focused placements, to encourage people to move into jobs in the open labour market.
To dissuade claimants from staying on welfare for long periods, jobseekers' benefits payable to casual workers will be reduced to encourage them to take up full-time work instead of combining part-time work with social welfare payments.
Pathways to Work contains targets for implementing the new system of profiling and provision of supports for claimants. It has a 2012 target of 457,400 training and education places. There will also be single working age assistance payment.
The Government is also considering outsourcing some of the functions to the private sector.
