London: The UK government announced a new initiative on Tuesday aimed at boosting employment by increasing access to mental health support and reforming job centres. The strategy, designed to address the rising rates of labor market inactivity, will focus on providing targeted mental health resources in areas with high levels of unemployment and shifting job centres’ priorities to offer more career guidance rather than enforcing the benefits system.
Details of the government’s plan were expected to be released later on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has set an ambitious target of raising the UK’s employment rate to 80%—up from just under 75%—as part of a broader effort to spur economic growth. Currently, the UK remains the only major economy where the inactivity rate exceeds pre-pandemic levels, largely due to the increasing number of people out of work due to long-term illness. However, economists have pointed out that issues with the official jobs market data may exaggerate the problem.
The government also plans to announce changes to the health and disability welfare system aimed at encouraging more individuals to enter or remain in the workforce. Long waiting times for mental health treatment and overburdened National Health Service (NHS) services are contributing factors to the problem, according to the government.
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“This government inherited a country that simply isn’t working. But today, we’ve set out a plan to fix this,” said Starmer, whose Labour Party secured a victory in the July parliamentary elections.
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Peter Cheese, the CEO of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), expressed support for the reform of job centres, highlighting that fewer than one in 10 employers currently find them effective in recruitment.
