Measures to boost workforce participation will target the over-50s, the long-term sick and disabled, and benefits claimants in the Chancellor’s upcoming budget. While employment levels have remained significantly below those prior to the epidemic, damaging the UK's already troubled economy, tackling economic inactivity is a critical part of Jeremy Hunt's objectives.
The process is expected to be replaced with one that asks claimants to demonstrate what job they might be able to take, prompting disability equality charity Scope to warn that “disabled people shouldn’t be forced into unsuitable work”.
The Resolution Foundation think tank recently stated that although people aged 50 and over accounted for 75% of the increase in economic inactivity, which increased by 830,000 between 2019 and 2022, efforts to persuade elderly retirees to "unretire" were unlikely to be successful.
Hunt will detail an overhaul of the Universal Credit system aimed at encouraging claimants to move into work or increase their hours.
The Chancellor has faced pressure to act on childcare, after it was shown to be among the most expensive in the world.
He will announce a rise in the maximum universal credit childcare allowance – which has been frozen at £646-a-month per child for years – by several hundred pounds, the Treasury said, without providing the exact amount.
Also, the government will begin paying parents who receive childcare assistance through universal credit immediately rather than in arrears. That will assist people who, because of the exorbitant upfront costs under the current system, find it difficult to start a job or risk going into debt.