Labour Market Activity

Liz Kendall Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Ashworth]

It is a crazy situation. In fairness to the Secretary of State—I do always wish to be fair to him—decisions on the shared prosperity fund are made by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, but for a Government who say that focusing on inactivity will be a feature of their Budget, the fact that one Department does not seem to know what another is doing does not exactly fill one with confidence.

Shifting resources out of Whitehall would provide greater opportunities to better join up and co-locate employment advisers in health services, mental health services, addiction services and primary care. We know that increasing numbers of people are out of work, not just for depression and anxiety but for traditional musculoskeletal conditions, and if we are to get people back into work, they need to be supported into work. They need to be given the support to thrive once they are in work. This is urgent, because we do not want the increasing numbers who are leaving work as the short-term sick turning into the long-term sick. We know that, once someone is out of work beyond three months, they risk being out of work for a considerable time.

Obviously, some of this is to do with access to the NHS, given that there are 7 million on the waiting list. It is about access to primary care, to help people manage their health conditions, but there is also a role for employment advisers. Indeed, the new frontier of social security reform, in my view, is bringing together health and welfare in a way we have not before. That also means giving people proper occupational health support. In fairness to the Government, a few years ago they endorsed Dame Carol Black’s report on occupational health, and they piloted a Fit for Work occupational health scheme, but they pulled the plug on it before it had time to properly bed in and develop. That was possibly an incredibly short-sighted decision, given the numbers out of work today for reasons of sickness.

We need to reform sick pay, as Labour has consistently called for. We need to ensure that fit notes are about not just signing people off but sign-posting people to help. We need to give people flexible work options, so that they can stay in work. We also need to support women to stay in work with the menopause, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) has outlined today. My hon. Friends the Members for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris) and for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) have been elegant and brilliant champions for this.

[Liz Kendall (Leicester West) (Lab)]

Elegant!

[Jonathan Ashworth]

They have been articulate and fantastic champions. I always praise my fellow MPs from Leicester. The Government need to take this agenda seriously, because we know that increasing numbers of women in their 50s are being forced out of the labour market but would stay in work if given the right flexible options.

We also need to tackle the barriers in the social security system that prevent people from moving into work. People should not be trapped on welfare, abandoned to going nowhere. That brings me to childcare. We know that childcare can make the difference between a parent rejoining the workforce and staying at home to look after their children. For some parents, childcare may not be available where they live, but for many parents—particularly those on the lowest incomes—childcare costs can be an insurmountable barrier to work. That should not be the case.

A lack of childcare, or a lack of support paying for it, should not stand in the way of a parent returning to work, yet low-income families often have that choice taken away from them. The design of the universal credit system means that childcare costs are based on payment in arrears, but as childcare usually needs to be paid up front, in advance, parents often have to choose between taking on debt or turning down work. It is pushing more families into debt. The Government’s answer is that people can go to their work coach and ask for a flexible support fund grant, but it should not be the case that a poorly understood and difficult handout scheme administered by the DWP is there to address the failings in the DWP’s own policy. We need to fix this.

--- Later in debate ---

[Liz Kendall (Leicester West) (Lab)]

The argument I want to make today is that having a properly functioning social care system, and far more flexibility at work for families who look after elderly or disabled relatives, is essential for ensuring people in their 50s and 60s can work, and that that is especially true for women.

The latest census data, out in the last month, shows there are now at least 5 million unpaid family carers in England and Wales. The highest proportion of unpaid carers in any age group are women aged 50 to 59. One in five of all women in their 50s are now caring for an older, sick or disabled relative—a quite staggering figure. Not far behind are women aged 60 to 64: 18.7% now have caring responsibilities.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sure you will agree that women in their 50s and 60s are in the prime of their life. We have huge experience at work and in bringing up our families. But too many women in this age group struggle to hold down paid work with their caring responsibilities. In total, 2.6 million unpaid carers have to give up work or reduce hours because they cannot get the help they need to look after their loved ones. They lose their income, businesses lose their talents and the economy loses their contribution. Where on earth is the sense in that?

Since the covid-19 pandemic, as hon. Members have mentioned, some 350,000 more people aged over 50 are economically inactive, with research by the Health Foundation and others showing that ill health is the single largest reason. However, the second largest reason is looking after family and the home. If we want our economy firing on all cylinders, if we want growth at the top of the G7 league table, instead of languishing at the bottom, as we have seen after 13 years of this Government, we must use the talents of everyone in our country. For people in their 50s and 60s, that means dealing with the issue of care and the crisis in our care system.

Labour’s plan for tackling the issue has two main strands. First, we will bring forward a new deal for care workers to ensure that frontline staff get the pay, training, terms and conditions they deserve, so we tackle the terrible recruitment and retention problems that have led to a staggering 165,000 shortages in social care—even more than in the NHS. That would make the single biggest difference to the care system, which in turn would make the single biggest difference to people in their 50s and 60s, who cannot hold down jobs because they also need to care for an elderly or disabled loved one.

Secondly, Labour will help unpaid family carers better balance work and family life, by bringing in the right to flexible working from day one, and by having a proper system of care leave, just as we have parental leave for new families. Just as importantly, we will work with businesses and trade unions to ensure that family-friendly working for those caring for older and disabled relatives moves to the top of the agenda because, as many good businesses already know, it helps to improve recruitment and retention. It increases productivity, too.

When the welfare state was created, average life expectancy was 63. It is now 80, and one in four babies born today is set to live to 100. Back then, women stayed at home to look after their families. Now we care for our loved ones and we go out to work. We live in the century of ageing and, as we all live for longer, we will need to work and care for longer. We need to modernise our welfare state to put social care on an equal footing with the NHS, and we need to ensure that care as a whole—childcare as well as social care—is as much a part of our economic infrastructure as the roads and railways. That is what families want, it is what businesses and our economy demand, and it is essential for women’s equality. That is what a future Labour Government will deliver.