Responding to the launch of the Government’s Help To Work scheme, Stephen Timms MP, Shadow Minister for Employment, said:

“Under David Cameron’s government nearly one in ten people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance lack basic literacy skills and many more are unable to do simple maths or send an email. Yet this government allows jobseekers to spend up to three years claiming benefits before they get literacy and numeracy training.

“A Labour government will introduce a Basic Skills Test to assess all new claimants for Job Seeker’s Allowance within six weeks of claiming benefits. Those who don’t have the skills they need for a job will have to take up training alongside their job search or lose their benefits. Labour’s Basic Skills Test and our Compulsory Jobs Guarantee will give the unemployed a better chance of finding a job and will help us to earn our way out of the cost-of-living crisis.”

Ends

Notes for Editors

1.       Long-term youth unemployment has risen by 80% under David Cameron.

2.       Labour’s Compulsory Jobs Guarantee would mean every young person out of work for more than 12 months will be given a paid starter job. This is work they will have to take up or lose benefits. The Compulsory Jobs Guarantee will also apply to adults aged 25 or over out of work for two years or more and will be funded for the whole of the next Parliament by: repeating Labour’s successful tax on bank bonuses at the start of the next Parliament; and restricting pensions tax relief for people earning over £150,000 to the same rate as basic rate taxpayers.