'This is a dysfunctional system': Report warns job centres failing long term sick

A new report has said Job Centres are failing to help the long-term sick, a section of society the government is keen to get back into work, ITV News Business Editor Joel Hills reports

Once upon a time, Barnsley struggled as the collieries closed.

Today, the town’s problem isn’t unemployment, it’s economic inactivity.

And Barnsley isn’t alone.

In Barnsley Library, I met Tammy Highley who is off benefits and is on the road back into employment.

She has had to study but three years after a series of illnesses - including a pulmonary embolism, thyroid problems and a hernia - and she is due to start training as a teaching assistant in September.

This is her victory but she insists it was a team effort.

“At Adastra [a local community company], Michelle and Rachel they’ve helped me amazingly," she said.

"As well as the other ladies I’ve met in Women’s Group, there’s Kelly who is my employment and information advisor at Barnsley Council."

The support was vital. Without it, Tammy says she would be “stuck at home, depressed and miserable”.

Barnsley’s Job Centre Plus does not make Tammy’s list of thanks.

She says staff there helped to set up her assessment for incapacity benefit in February 2022 but didn’t connect her to any of the services which have supported her on the journey back to work.

Barnsley’s unemployment rates are below the national average but the town’s residents suffer ill-health and disability more than other parts of the country.

The council set up the Pathways to Work Commission to assess how best to tackle economic inactivity, in Barnsley and across the UK.

The study was led by the former Labour minister Alan Milburn and concludes that the benefits, health and employment system are “failing catastrophically”.

“The whole system is dysfunctional,” Milburn told ITV News. “At the moment, it's just a chaotic mess of so many initiatives, so many programmes. Nobody can navigate it. And unless we can get that right, the incentives for people who might want to work to actually actively seek employment.”

The number of people who are “economically inactive” due to long-term sickness has risen by more than 700,000 in the last four years, according to the Office of National Statistics.

The Milburn Commission’s report says that seven in ten people who are currently not working or looking for work would take a job if it “aligned with their skills, interests and circumstances”.

It makes a series of recommendations which it argues could help as many as three million people to return to the workforce.

Job centres should be radically reformed to become a one-stop shop for all support services - integrating them with health services to better support the long-term sick.

It recommends a devolution of power to councils and regional mayors to ensure.

The new government is set to adopt both of these ideas.

Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.

But the report also proposes benefits reform.

The standard financial support offered to a jobseeker of £393.45 per month is half that offered to someone on incapacity benefit.

The report argues this gap is “perverse” and that, as a result, “it pays to be classified as incapable of work rather than actively seeking it”.

Will the new minister change benefits payments?

Liz Kendall won’t say. She was in Barnsley today to welcome the report and to promise reform.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...

The increase in the number of people claiming incapacity and disability benefits is a worrying trend.

Reversing it would be good for the economy - it would be good for everyone.

And this report suggests you could help large numbers of people back into work simply by changing the way the system interacts with them.

At Billington Structures in Barnsley, there’s support for a renewed effort.

The company has vacancies for welders and machine operators it can’t fill.

The chief executive told me he would happily recruit from the ranks of the long-term sick and has tried to in the past, but Mark Smith believes economic inactivity can only be successfully addressed if there’s a combination of carrots and sticks.

“The people who are genuinely in need, yes the benefits system is there for them and it should be,” Mr Smith told ITV News.

“But for those [who] that maybe have got stuck in that regular benefit trap and have got used to [financial support]. Is it right they are still on it?”

The idea there’s a hidden army of millions of workers locked inside Britain’s welfare system isn’t new.

Governments have tried to tackle inactivity in the past but with limited success.

This time might be different but it’s worth remembering that many of the long-term sick are very unwell.

Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode…