Chancellor pledges work and welfare overhaul  ahead of Budget

Ahead of the Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has unveiled a £240m cash injection to accelerate the roll-out of local services to help people back into work and drive down inactivity.

The UK remains the only G7 country that has higher levels of economic inactivity now than before the pandemic, with 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness.

The funding is partly set to go towards boosting the roll-out of Get Britain Working ‘trailblazers’ in local areas, which will bring together and streamline work, health, and skills to support to disabled people and those who are long-term sick.

These trailblazers will focus on reaching people not normally in touch with the system, by enabling local areas to help them access existing support in skills, education, employment, or health, as well as testing early interventions targeted at the specific barriers they are facing to work.

Recognising that poor health is a key driver of economic inactivity, trailblazers will also ensure work and skills support is better integrated with the health service, to ensure people get the joined-up health and employment support they need to get back into work and stay in work.

The Government will also work in partnership with mayors to develop these trailblazers, to ensure these local services are tailored to meet the unique employment and inactivity challenges in different areas.

Benefit reform is also set to be accelerated this year, with 800,000 people on the old Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) benefit to be moved onto Universal Credit (UC) from this autumn instead of 2028.

These announcements precede the Get Britain Working White Paper – set to be unveiled later in the Autumn – which will set out the Government’s plans for reform.