Welfare Expenditure
Debate between Baroness Sherlock and Lord Hintze(1 week, 2 days ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
The noble Baroness is absolutely right. We know that most young people want to work because our colleagues talk to them all the time. I am grateful to her for saying that. This is not a snowflake generation that does not want to work; of course they want to work. But they need a chance to get a start. We have already begun to do that through supported jobs and employer incentives. We have young people, often for the first time in their life, working for employers such as Boots and others—doing real jobs. Only this morning it was announced that there is a partnership between major hospitality employers, including Whitbread, McDonald’s and Nando’s, and UKHospitality. They ae going to create jobs and are committed to hiring 100,000 young people who are not in employment, education or training. Hospitality is a big employer of young people. Having these real jobs, whether work experience or actual jobs, is the way that we get young people into work, giving them the experience and the chance to get in there. Once they have done that, they can move onwards and upwards.
Working-age Welfare System
Debate between Baroness Sherlock and Lord Hintze(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
The noble Baroness makes an excellent point. She is absolutely right that the employment rate for people with a learning disability is unacceptably low. Through developing our connect to work programme, we have found that we need to work with both the employer and the individual who wants a job. I have been given some really interesting cases—some wonderful examples. A young woman called Jennifer, who had left college and been unable to get a job, worked with connect to work and was given help with interview support and with identifying an employer. They found an opportunity for her to work with Stagecoach. Stagecoach wants to employ such individuals and regards her as a valuable employee, but once she is in the job, connect to work can carry on supporting her and make sure that she gets the continued support she needs to stay in it. That is the way forward: to work with individuals and to find out what they most want to do. Jennifer is now a bus driver. Other people have opportunities to do other things. For each individual, it will be different, whether or not they have a learning disability.
Lord Hintze (Con)
My Lords, the Minister has said something very important. We have, obviously, a huge need to support the vulnerable in our country. We all agree with that. But what about what the Minister said about making sure that those who cannot work are supported? How are the Government making sure that those who are taking welfare—and there is a two-way obligation here, to the individual and to the state—are in fact vulnerable and need that support?