Minister to be questioned on Careers Service-Jobcentre merger
Employment Minister Alison McGovern will be questioned on the Government’s reforms of Jobcentres that could affect millions of service users.
Meeting details
Cross-party MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee will scrutinise proposals to merge the National Careers Service with Jobcentre Plus announced last year but little further detail has since been published. The aim is to refocus the Jobcentre more on its traditional task of finding people suitable and sustainable employment rather than monitoring claimants’ benefits conditionality and sanctioning people.
Recently, the Employment Minister outlined a fresh attitude to finding employment, stating that the service will no longer be pushing people into any job and would instead focus on building careers. However, elsewhere the Government has said that conditionality will remain part of the regime.
But how does the Government propose balancing the requirements of conditionality with the need for work coaches to focus more on work and training in the 10 minutes that they have with customers? The Committee will question the Minister on whether there will be any changes to the sanctions regime, the centrality of the principle of ‘good work’, and what the reforms will mean for claimants, work coaches, and prospective employers.