Getting back to work

THERE is quite rightly a huge focus nationally and locally on unemployment.

As I write this article, I have just come back from a meeting with a thriving local business employing 30 people that has plans to expand and take on more staff.

It needs to move to two new bigger sites in South West Bedfordshire and will need the cooperation of our local planning authority, Central Bedfordshire Council, in order to do this and I hope it will be forthcoming.

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Keeping local jobs and creating more is a top priority for me so we do not become a dormitory district with people having to leave the area to find work.

British people commute further and for longer than almost any other country in Europe and we need a better mix of housing and jobs across the country.

Children will gain from this as they see more of their parents at the start and end of the day, if they have to commute less.

Elderly relatives will see more of their families if their working children are not so squeezed at the start and end of the day.

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Community, voluntary and church groups will have more active and willing members if local people are around for more weekday evenings.

As someone who works in both London and South West Bedfordshire, I am well aware how much more I can do locally when I am working in Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable or Houghton Regis.

The July unemployment figures showed there were 2.45 million unemployed people in the UK.

And locally there were 2,086 people on Jobseeker’s Allowance in South West Bedfordshire in June.

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What gets less attention but is actually more important is the number of people on Incapacity Benefit or Employment and Support Allowance as it is now called.

There are 2.6 million people on Incapacity Benefit (IB), more than the number of people who are unemployed.

IB claimants account for seven per cent of the working age population at a cost of £13 billion a year.

The last government started to put all new claimants for IB through a work capability assessment but did not assess all IB claimants.

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This meant that many people, who could work, with the right support, were left on IB.

New figures released at the end of last month show that over a third of claimants have been assessed as ‘fit for work’, while another third cancelled their claim before they were required to take the work capability assessment.

These are fairly amazing figures given the number of people involved and the cost to taxpayers.

The government continues to be clear that disabled people who need unconditional support will continue to receive it.

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It is not a burden, but a proud duty to look after those who genuinely cannot work.

Professor Malcolm Harrington, a leading occupational health expert, has advised on the requirements of the work capability assessment and disabled and mental health charities are involved too.

All these former IB claimants will get better welfare to work support than ever before to try to secure some of the 520,000 net new private sector jobs created in the last year.

We just need more to be given to British workers.