IF you can work you must work, Labour’s welfare chief Liz Kendall pledged today as she announced measures to push people off welfare and into employment.

The package announced by the Work and Pensions Secretary to boost employment was mainly carrot, with the stick coming next year in the form of a benefits review.

Ms Kendall pledged a shake-up of the government jobcentres, rebadged as a National Jobs and Careers Service, and a “new youth guarantee” to ensure that all young people are in employment, education or training — at present up to a million are not.

She also said the government would give mayors and other local authorities power to “drive down economic inactivity caused by ill-health.”

Yet PCS union president Martin Cavanagh told the Morning Star this week that any move to decentralise jobcentres risked causing a postcode lottery in welfare.

The government is responding to the fact that Britain is alone among the major economies in having employment levels that have still not recovered from the impact of the Covid pandemic.

Youth unemployment stands at nearly 14 per cent and the number of workers inactive due to ill-health at just under 2.8 million, according to official statistics.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak welcomed the plans, saying: “It is right to ensure that young people who are seeking work are helped to find a job or training.

“Positive early experiences in the jobs market are vital for young people’s future life chances.

“They must be supported to take part, not faced with self-defeating sanctions.

“Success will also depend on ministers making the investment that’s needed in health services and quality training.

“Jobcentre staff must have a central role in redesigning their services, and devolution must never come at the cost of staff terms and conditions.”

PCS public service union’s general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Greater resources for jobcentres and more flexibility for work coaches to deliver a more personalised service is welcome, as is improved co-ordination with local labour markets, but toughening sanctions will be counter-productive.

“Our members want to help people, not punish them. 

“Many of the DWP’s own workers are having to claim universal credit because of endemic low pay in the Civil Service, and the government needs to do more to boost pay right across the workforce.”

The government’s plan, badged as “get Britain working again,” aims to bring more than two million people back into the jobs market.

Extra cash is to be channelled to the NHS in areas of high joblessness in order to cut waiting lists. 

There will also be priorities in tackling mental health and obesity.

The new jobs service will, the government claims, focus on helping people back into work rather than monitoring benefits, as under the Tories, and mayors will have the power to develop their own local employment plans.

But Ms Kendall’s iron fist lurked within the velvet glove, as she said: “We said there was no option of a life on benefits, and that principle remains the same today.”

The review of benefits next year is expected to flesh out that threat.

It comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, writing in the Mail on Sunday, said: “We will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.”

This was followed by Employment Minister Alison McGovern accusing benefits claimants of “stealing from the state.”

Scottish Greens social justice spokeswoman Maggie Chapman MSP said: “Keir Starmer is morphing into a Tory before our eyes. 

“Demonising people on social security benefits will not end poverty, it will simply entrench stigma.

“Social security support is the mark of a humane, decent society. It includes pension payments, disability support and so much more.

“All politicians must work to urgently tackle the root causes of poverty in the UK, but that can only happen if we work to close the wealth gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

“The real scroungers are those who dodge paying tax, those who use loopholes and tax havens to avoid paying their fair share, and those, like the royal family, who cost the taxpayer millions of pounds.

“That is why the Scottish Greens are pushing for a wealth tax on the top 1 per cent to deliver £70 billion for our public services, which will help tackle the core issues which lead to poverty.”

Richard Kramer, of the disability charity Sense, said that supporting disabled jobseekers into employment was welcome, but added: “Disabled people must not be left in fear that their benefits will be cut if they turn down job offers or training courses that don’t meet their needs.

“It is also vital to remember that not every disabled person is able to work and no-one ever should be pressured into taking a job at the expense of their health.”