One-to-one advisers doubled to help jobseekers back into work

RISHI SUNAK is preparing to double the number of work coaches in job centres to help to cope with job losses as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Chancellor is expected to double the number from 13,500 to 27,000 in an attempt to help jobseekers back into employment.

The move will cost some £800million and comes amid predictions of a major recession in the aftermath of the pandemic as GDP has taken a severe hit during lockdown.

The Chancellor is set to outline policies aimed at dealing with Britain’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday. The Treasury insists that work coaches act as “expert mentors” and have a “proven” record to help jobseekers and benefit claimants into work quicker.

The move comes as job centres are to hold more face-to-face meetings with people seeking work from tomorrow as lockdown restrictions are eased.

As part of the first wave of the nationwide recruitment drive, an extra 4,500 coaches will be in position by October, with more to follow later in the year. The Government has set up a team of senior policy advisers from the

Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions to oversee the Government’s plans to support jobs.

A Treasury spokesman said: “The longer someone is out of work, the harder it is to return. Doubling the number of work coaches will ensure those in need are given immediate support to get back on their feet and into a job.

“Work coaches will use their expert advice to support claimants to make the most of their skills and put them in the best possible position to reconnect with the local labour market.

“Evidence shows that high-quality, work-focused, one-to-one adviser support significantly reduces jobseekers’ barriers to work.”

It is clear that Britain isn’t going to enjoy a V-shaped recovery. As of yesterday, we are out of hibernation and the high street is largely reopened, and the bounce-back has already started: GDP will leap ahead. But our national income won’t return to where it was before the pandemic, and we should also remember that growth had been feeble for a while before then.

At the same time, we are seeing massive job losses in previously sound companies, as well as a dramatic intensification of trends that had already been in train. The result will be an unemployment rate that will hit extremely elevated levels by October and the winter.

Hence Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, must act, ideally this week or at the very latest in the autumn when more data have become available. The fiscal rules must be adulterated, and there mustn’t be any tax increases: stimulus, when it comes, should take the form of supply-side tax cuts and related incentives.

The Chancellor needs to make it much cheaper for employers to recruit staff, and also encourage them to retain workers. How? The minimum wage should be frozen and national insurance contributions should be cut. In some areas, recruitment could be entirely NIC-free.

Stamp duty should be slashed dramatically, and the threshold at which it starts should be increased to turbocharge the housing market and help all the adjacent industries that benefit when people buy and sell.

Capital gains tax for buy-to-let investors should be put on pause for two years, to encourage even more transactions. All business investment should become immediately expensable. There should be a bonfire of red tape, going further than merely the planning reforms already announced. Banks must be allowed to dip into their capital as losses and write-offs mount. Freeports, one of Mr Sunak’s great ideas, are needed now, and should be extended in size and scope.

These are the sorts of measures we desperately need to see.