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19
Mar
Government trials welfare reform in North Yorkshire
The government has set its sights on York and North Yorkshire to trial plans to get more people into work and cut Britain’s welfare bill.
The Stray Ferret reported here in November that York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority had been named as one of eight trailblazer areas that will design better support for people who are economically inactive due to ill health.
Employment minister Alison McGovern recently visited the area to mark the launch of the programme.
The Inactivity Trailblazer programme seeks to work with employers and others to get people the support they need to get a job.
The Labour minister told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it would put an end to people who wanted to work being left on the scrapheap.
But the proposals, which come alongside cuts to disability benefits which aim to save £5 billion by 2030, have sparked a backlash.
York Central Labour MP Rachael Maskell said the benefit cuts were draconian while local disability rights campaigner Flick Williams said the Inactivity Trailblazer risked making vulnerable people poorer.
The Inactivity Trailblazer, which is part of the wider Get Britain Working programme, aims to tackle long-term joblessness in York and North Yorkshire.
In York and North Yorkshire, economic inactivity due to long-term sickness rose by 72.2% from 2019 to last year.
‘I have something to wake up for’
Tyler Potter, IT manager at York Community Furniture Store, has ADHD and autism.
He said he went through a long period of unemployment before getting a job at York Community Furniture Store which works with local Job Centres to take people on.
He said:
I spent a lot of time volunteering and trying to find where I could fit in, but I managed to get support through the DWP and I had an amazing job coach who helped me get the job here.
They liked me so much that after meeting them for the first time I got the call to say I’d got the job.
I’ve found my calling here, I have something to wake up for and to spend my days doing.
Cameron Clarke (left), a volunteer at the York Community Furniture Store and Tyler Potter, IT manager.
Cameron Clarke, who volunteers at the store, also has ADHD and autism.
He now works for Aviva but uses volunteering hours to help those working at the store.
He said:
I first came to the store in 2022 just after lockdown, there wasn’t very much in the way of jobs at the time.
I started volunteering at first but I finally got a job offer in 2023, I was ecstatic.
I look forward to work and I enjoy it, it’s given me independence.
‘Where are all the employers willing to employ us?’
Disability rights activist Flick Williams said the approach failed to account for employers’ reluctance to adjust workplaces and risked driving people into destitution.
She added the reason disabled people and their carers were out of work was because it was harder for them to get and to keep a job.
Ms Williams told a combined authority meeting on Friday, March 7 which discussed the Inactivity Trailblazer:
In which part of the process were disabled people asked: what are the barriers to you getting or staying in work?
If you had you may have learned about barriers to work such as inaccessible, unreliable, irregular transport, lack of accessible housing, barriers to obtaining mobility aids, social care support and timely healthcare, including for mental health or diagnosis of neurodivergence.
Where are all the employers willing to employ us, ready to make reasonable adjustments, offer the flexibility to employees to manage our impairment issues, health appointments or caring responsibilities?
Almost every disabled person in work that I know reports regular friction with their employer over the provision of reasonable adjustments.
If the forthcoming Spring Statement does in fact cut benefit entitlement, you will not starve us into work you will simply impoverish us further, with the resulting health and care crises that will be a financial cost elsewhere in the system.
David Skaith
‘We want to make sure we’re creating the workforce with the right skills’
York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith told the LDRS he hoped the Inactivity Trialblazer would help fill skill shortages in local industries.
Mr Skaith said:
What this extra funding does is help people who’ve been out of work for a long time to get back into work and support rather than them dropping out.
The challenge as ever in York and North Yorkshire is a geographic make up.
Young people in particular have had a tough time, nationally one in eight of them aren’t in work, education or training.
For some employers it’s about how their workplaces are set up but we’re also having conversions about the types of skills they require.
We want to make sure we’re creating our own workforce with the right skills.
Part of this is also about encouraging professionals who’ve left a trade like bricklaying say to come into college and train 20 to 30 more bricklayers.
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