Categories: News
      Date: Oct 12, 2009
     Title: Action needed now to tackle Telford’s Jobs Crisis and Debt Crisis, says Tom Biggins

Tom Biggins, Conservative Candidate for Telford, this week welcomed new Conservative proposals to get people working in Telford and to tackle the growing burden of government debt.

 
Tom Biggins, Conservative Candidate for Telford, this week welcomed new Conservative proposals to get people working in Telford and to tackle the growing burden of government debt.
 
- This comes as Government figures showed that in September 2009 there were 3,073 people unemployed in Telford claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, with six job seekers chasing every Job Centre vacancy in Telford.
 
- National debt is forecast to double to £1.4 trillion – equivalent to £22,500 of debt for every man, woman and child in Telford.
Under detailed new Conservative plans, Labour’s numerous and piecemeal work programmes would be simplified into a single back-to-work programme for everyone on out-of-work benefits. This would be backed up with new and additional work pairings, apprenticeships, further education college places and vocational education for young people. There would also be programmes to support self-employment, work clubs and volunteering opportunities to help people prepare for work and find jobs.
 
Action would also be taken to tackle Britain’s debt crisis, by reducing the cost of government, while protecting front-line services. Measures would include reducing the administrative costs of Whitehall and its quangos; capping the biggest government pensions; a pay freeze for public sector workers in 2011 – except the million lowest paid; concentrating benefit spending on the poorest and most vulnerable; and tackling the pensions time bomb while ensuring a decent standard of living in old age.
 
Tom Biggins said: “Some of the biggest challenges facing Telford are Labour’s jobs crisis and debt crisis. There are already six people chasing each job vacancy in Telford and we will soon each be burdened with £22,500 of government debt.
 
“We need to rebuild our broken economy, mend our broken society and fix our broken politics. Help should be directed towards those in our society who are most in need. Modern Conservatives will reward those who take responsibility, and care for those who can’t.”

 - ends -

 
Conservatives have outlined plans to tackle Britain’s Debt Crisis and Britain’s Jobs Crisis.
 
TACKLING BRITAIN’S DEBT CRISIS
 
According to the Budget early this year, national debt will rise from £609 billion in 2008-09 to £1.4 trillion by 2013-14 (HM Treasury, Budget 2009, p.226).
 
Reduce the cost of government without harming front line services
 
·         The Government should recommend no headline increase in pay for all public sector workers in 2011, except for the lowest paid one million who should be protected. Military personnel on active service overseas should be more than compensated by doubling the Operational Allowance to an average of £4,800 for a six month tour of duty.
 
·         The Government should set out plans to reduce the administrative costs of Whitehall bureaucracy and quangos by at least one third.
 
·         The Government should find ways to cap the biggest government pensions, including those for senior civil servants, local council executives and quango managers. This cap should prevent any taxpayer-funded increase in senior government pensions already worth over £50,000 a year, and stop all taxpayer-funded pensions for these groups in future exceeding £50,000 a year. This would reduce the growth of public sector pension liabilities by hundreds of millions of pounds over the next decade.
 
Concentrate benefit spending on the poorest and most vulnerable
 
·         The Government should stop new spending on Child Trust Funds for better off families. Disabled children and the poorest one third of families should continue to receive both new Child Trust Funds at birth and top-up payments.
 
·         The Government should stop paying tax credits to households with incomes over £50,000 by starting to means-test the Family Element of the Child Tax Credit at a lower threshold.
 
·         The Government should cut benefits by up to £25 a week for anyone currently receiving Incapacity Benefit who fails a new work test and is therefore entitled only to Jobseekers Allowance. This would save more than £1 billion over the next Parliament, of which £600 million should be used to help get the unemployed back into work.
 
Ensure that the burden is shared fairly
 
·         The new 50p tax rate and associated changes to the taxation of higher earners should be kept in place for at least as long as the public sector pay freeze, in order to ensure that the richest in our society pay their fair share of the burden of tackling Labour’s debt crisis.
 
Tackle the pensions time bomb while ensuring a decent standard of living in old age:
 
·         The Government should announce an updated review of the state pension age, as recommended by Adair Turner’s Pension Commission. Given the state of the public finances and rapidly changing demographic projections, the review should consider whether the increase in the pension age from 65 to 66 should be brought forward from 2026, but starting no earlier than 2016 for men and 2020 for women.
 
·         This should be combined with a renewed commitment to re-link the state pension to earnings growth in the next Parliament in order to ensure a decent standard of living for all in retirement, halt the spread of means-testing and restore incentives to save.
 
 
TACKLING BRITAIN’S JOBS CRISIS
 
The Work Programme
 
The Work Programme is a bold new Conservative welfare to work programme to deal with Labour’s jobs crisis that will help more people more quickly than Labour’s short term, piecemeal and disjointed policies. 
 
·             Conservatives will simplify Labour’s numerous and piecemeal programmes into one single back-to-work programme for everyone on out-of-work benefits.
·             The Work Programme will include support back into work for the 2.6 million people claiming Incapacity Benefits currently excluded by Labour.
·             We will abolish the Treasury’s rule that prevents the Government paying work providers using the benefits saved once someone has a job. This will allow us to offer support to the 2.6 million people on Incapacity Benefit.
·             We will offer greater support to the young unemployed by referring them on to the Work Programme after 6 months of unemployment compared to a year under the Flexible New Deal.
·             We will pay providers by results with a focus on truly sustainable outcomes and bigger rewards for getting the hardest to help into a job. 
 
Youth Action for Work – tackling youth unemployment
 
Youth Action for Work is specifically focused on those most at risk from long term damage through a period of unemployment – the young. All those aged 18-24 who have been claiming JSA for six months will be referred to a Work Programme provider with a responsibility to help that young person into work. Options will include:
 
·             Work Pairings – on average, 50,000 places a year for young people, who will be assigned to sole traders for six months of meaningful work experience and mentoring.
·             Apprenticeships – we will provide 100,000 additional apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships each year by offering SMEs incentives to take on apprentices and by simplifying the system.
·             Further Education College places – we will help FE colleges to provide 50,000 additional training places per year for young people who have been on JSA for six months or more.
·             Vocational education for 14-16 year olds – we will expand the government’s Young Apprenticeship scheme, which offers vocational training for 14-16 year olds, from the current 10,000 to over 30,000 a year.  
 
Work for Yourself – supporting self-employment and local firms
 
We will build a network of business mentors and offer substantial loans to would-be entrepreneurs, supporting self-employment and franchising as a route back into work. We will work with specialist organisations that already have a proven track record in this area, like the Prince’s Trust and the Bright Ideas Trust, to offer the best support.
 
Work Together – helping with volunteering
 
We will establish a programme to connect people with volunteering opportunities in their area. Meaningful activity has many benefits for those who are looking for work and many voluntary organisations would welcome volunteers from all backgrounds to help them during this difficult period. 
 
Work Clubs – to share experience and support
 
We also want to build on the current success of voluntary job clubs in creating more opportunities and support within local communities. So we will help with the seed funding needed to establish a network of Work Clubs, places where people can gather to share experiences and offer support.
 
The proposals above apply to England and Wales, except for policy areas devolved to the National Assembly in Wales (e.g. education and skills).
 
LOCAL FIGURES
 
The table below shows the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), and contrasts it with the number of JobCentre Plus vacancies being advertised.
 

 
Jobseekers' Allowance claimants
JobCentre Plus vacancies
Number of jobseekers per vacancy
England and Wales
1,413,294
201,774
7
Telford
3,073
490
6

Source: ONS, Labour Market Statistics, September 2009.