The Salary Calculator

At the end of January, the Department for Work and Pensions published its new plan to move “half a million people into jobs by the end of June.” The campaign is called ‘Way to Work’ and supposedly will “support people” back into work “faster than ever before.”

However, as positive as this sounds, the reality of the initiative is very different. Critics of the new campaign have called it “dangerous” and say that it “misses the point.”

So what exactly is the campaign all about and who will be affected by it? At The Salary Calculator, we’ll walk you through:

• What the ‘Way to Work’ initiative is
• Why the government has introduced it
• What the impact of the scheme will be

What is the ‘Way to Work’ initiative 

The Way to Work initiative focuses largely on Universal Credit (UC) claimants who are looking for jobs and will be facilitated at UK Jobcentres by claimants’ Work Coaches. The initiative will see the introduction of new rules whereby claimants will have to expand their job search and apply for job vacancies outside of their preference zone at four weeks of unemployment. Currently, the period at which claimants must expand their search is three months. 

As outlined by Thérèse Coffey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, the drive behind the initiative is to get people into “any job,” rather than a job that fits their skills set, qualifications, or interests. 

Now, under the new initiative, Universal Credit claimants will face tough sanctions if, after four weeks, it is deemed they have failed to make “reasonable efforts” to secure a job or if they turn down any offer. Claimants will ultimately lose part of their universal credit payment.

The amount of Universal Credit benefit claimants receive varies depending on their personal circumstances, but already, the TUC has outlined that it’s not enough to live on, especially in light of rising energy costs and the soaring costs of living. 

Why has the government introduced this initiative?

According to the government, the initiative is a response to the number of job vacancies in the UK, which is now at a ‘record high’ at 1.2 million vacancies, a figure that’s 59% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Speaking about the motivation behind the initiative, Coffey said: “As we emerge from COVID, we are going to tackle supply challenges and support the continued economic recovery by getting people into work. Our new approach will help claimants get quickly back into the world of work while helping ensure employers get the people they and the economy needs.” 

What will the impact be of the scheme?

Although the UK government argues that this initiative will help to fill vacancies and kickstart the economy, experts argue that the move is doomed to fail, and that coercion into jobs has been proven not to work. Regardless, with over 200,000 new claims per month, many people across the UK will find themselves impacted by this initiative. 

Elizabeth Taylor, CEO of the Employability Services Related Association (ERSA), outlined that a “one-size-fits-all” approach is ineffective, and the initiative, as a whole, is “at odds with the people centered methodologies that employment support providers apply.” Adding: “Individually tailored support which meets personal and local labor market needs must remain front and center of any quality employability provision.”

Taylor, writing in Forbes, says that rather than coercing individuals into jobs they aren’t suited to, providing “quality employment support” and finding ways to get people into the “right job” is not only better for the employer and the employee, but the economy as a whole, too. 

Likewise, Ruth Patrick, a senior lecturer in social policy at the University of York, states that pushing people to apply to any job, “underpinned” by the threat of benefit sanctions, is, in fact, damaging and “corrosive” to relationships between claimants and advisers. Patrick explains that this approach risks pushing people into “insecure and unsuitable employment.”

A review by a University of Glasgow team also found that overall, the kind of sanctions proposed by the UK government has detrimental effects on health and wellbeing, leading to material hardship, unemployment and economic inactivity. Moreover, while in the short term, sanctions can boost employment levels, job quality and stability are negatively affected in the long term. 

According to a statement by the Minister for Employment, Mims Davies MP last week, there are now “positive signs of recovery,” with unemployment “continuing to drop,” however, for the time being, it looks as though the tough sanctions of the new Way to Work initiative are here to stay.