| Government, Tesco in tie-up to give jobs to people on incapacity benefits |
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LONDON: The British government and retail chain Tesco Plc. are teaming up to help people on incapacity benefits to try their hands at jobs without their having to give up the payments.
Work and pensions secretary John Hutton said willing people will be put on work for a week at Tesco to prepare them to take up a job. This will be followed by training and support sessions to equip them to compete in the job market. Even Tesco will absorb some of them in permanent jobs.
The venture with Tesco is part of the work and pensions department's "Pathways to Work" programme, which has already found work for some 4,000 people on incapacity benefits. The programme is among the government's reforms initiatives to ensure that people do avail of benefits for nothing in return.
Pathways to Work is now available in 11 areas in the country and it will cover more than an third of all people on incapacity benefits by October this year. Under the programme, people can get personal advice from experts, NHS support to help them cope with health conditions and 40-pounds-a week bonus to ensure that return to employment is financially worthwhile.
Speaking at a Job Centre Plus in Derby, Hutton said the vast majority of people on incapacity benefits want to work and "We should not tolerate any longer a system that says to people you are no longer capable of doing anything again in your life."
Hutton is, meanwhile, preparing to launch a consultation on the government's wider plan of getting around one million people on incapacity benefits out of the programme and back into work so that the government can plug the nearly 12-billion-pound drain on its resources annually.
Posted
on : Sun, 22 Jan 2006 08:25 GMT | General News
By : Mike Lawson
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