GORDON Brown will today outline measures to fast-track single parents back into work.
He will tell the TUC conference he wants to find jobs for 500,000 workers, bringing Britain closer to full employment than ever before.
And he especially wants to help lone parents and others who have been outside the job market for extended periods back into work.
Measures could include:
A new guarantee of an interview for an available job for every lone parent.
A new £400 training allowance to help employers train up `fast-track' recruits.
An extension from 15 to 42 days of the period after starting work that lone parents can continue to receive benefits.
A nationwide back-to-work credit worth £40 a week, or £60 in London.
Young people who left school this summer are also set to be offered a guarantee of a place on a pre-apprenticeship course or in college by the end of this month, and all teenagers will be approached to make sure they are taking up training opportunities.
The prime minister will say that despite 340,000 more young people being in work than in 1997, he believes there are still too many over-16s who are not in education, training or work.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "The government believes that if we are able to implement all of these measures, an extra 500,000 British jobs could be created for British workers. The prime minister believes we can advance closer to full employment than ever before in our history, so that there is a British job for every British worker."
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith yesterday revealed plans to extend a requirement on non-EU migrants to pass GCSE-standard English language tests before coming to work in Britain.
The language requirement which now applies to highly-skilled workers will be extended to all skilled workers, and ministers will launch a review to consider including the low-skilled as well.
Government sources have indicated that around 35,000 of the 95,000 skilled non-EU migrants who came to Britain last year to work would have failed an English test.
But Ms Smith dodged repeated questions on whether the aim of the policy was to cut immigrant numbers.
She said: "I want to make sure the flow of migrants coming into the country are coming in a way that's going to benefit the UK."
Should every lone parent be guaranteed an interview for any available job? Have your say.
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If Gordon Brown wants to incentivise lone parents and the long term unemployed back into work, unemployment benefits should be reduced after six months.
I've never been out of work and for 5 out of 10 years I was a single mum.
I can see this opening a whole load of doors for people who can't/won't work.
If he can fast track interviews,it must be the case per se that he can also fast track creche facilities to attend same...Fast tracking is a great tool for those who want to be fast tracked...I suggest that it should be used for the NHS waiting lists.
NICE IDEA GORD,BUT SOME JUST DONT WANNA WORK,SPECIALLY ON MY ESTATE
So companies should be forced to interview people who may be completely unsuitable for the role? What a waste of their time and money. I am thinking of becoming a black, disabled, lesbian lone parent asylum seeker because that way I figure I will lead the most comfortable life with the majority of doors opened for me with the least effort on my part.
What a totally useless government this is. pregnant women getting two hundred pounds to eat properly .and now yet another regurgitated idea. getting single parents back to work...Mr brown if you are reading this ..ITS BEEN TRIED BEFORE MATE.
then when the lone parent is out at work, young jonny (or jenny) gets bored and decides to have some fun with the other kids whose only parent is out at work. they start of with a little, (a lot actually),alcohol followed by a tour of the local area where they cause untold mayhem only for pc plod to turn up and spoil all their fun by taking them off down the nick. mum or dad then gets a call from sergant plod to get down the nick asap as they are due a right royal rollicking and or charges for being a bad and neglectful parent.
yes encourage people to work but dont forget that a parents priority is to ensure their offspring are behaving and developing in a well structured and acceptable way. and if more single parents are working and away from their children for longer then we are going to see many more children turn rogue and fight against the system just because they missed that vital guidance from mum or dad.
if there are 500,000 jobs available - why are they not being filled, or is this just another publicity stunt by half baked brown???.
like someone else said about his estate that single parents wont work - same goes on my estate.
i have been out of work 5 weeks and i have been hounded to get work, yet others i know have been dolies for years & tears and proud of it, these are the ones who should be starved back to work - thankfully i am prepared to work as i couldnt live like that.
Nothing above the state, nothing below the state, nothing but the state.
When socialists raise their fists and shout power to the people, what they really mean is power over the people.
Pathetic.
And who is going to look after their children ie in the mornings or after school and is he going to give childcare FREE, what about all these people that have never work two parent families, what about all these criminals give them a job then they might go to bed at a decent hour, and then are property is safe in the middle of the night Come on Gordy get a grip
janetj235, chorlton
Why not train single parents to be cresh teachers and make them work for their training money (pay back the money it costs to train them) then after they look after other single parents kids who go to work for a set time they could be free to find work else where. so you have ready made workers to run a free cresh to get single parents back to work...easy.
who is going to pay for the single parents working as chreche workers if its free? And whats the incentive to go back to work whenm you can get as much or more money a week on benefits?
Spot on Neil Armstrong.
Though there are jobs out there that don't interfere too much with parenting, they are few & far between & most jobs available to lone parents do not offer enough flexibility or support to achieving a good home/work life balance. Especially considering the cost of childcare! & once your child reaches secondary school there aren't that many options for childcare in the holidays etc.
My boss once made me work for three hours on the one morning a week that I couldn't provide free or subsidised childcare,I could have done the work any other time in the week, the result was me paying a local childminder £25 for 3 hours work. Far more than I was earning at the time. Even now I get verbal asides from managers about my "lack of flexibility", but my kids come first & I think they would struggle to disipline me for being unable to magic up chilcare at late notice when none is available.
Ace, nice idea, but frankly I wouldn't trust most of the mums I see around to look after my kids! It would work for a few though no doubt. You should start your own project ;)