'A well-designed safety net would help people return to work when they can'

Eloise Sacares is a researcher at the Fabian Society.

Many of us will face a situation at some point in our lives when we are simply not able to work. But under this government’s threadbare safety net, those who find ourselves having to leave work temporarily are locked out and held back from the labour market. The Labour party must improve the safety net to unlock the door to social mobility and aspiration.

Sometimes we can’t work due to factors outside of our control, like taking care of a friend or relative, getting sick, or being made redundant. We might also have decided to have a baby or retrain to pursue a new career. Whatever the reason, we still need an income. But we have one of the least generous income safety nets in the developed world.

A well-designed safety net would help people return to work when they can. Good sickness and maternity policies create financial incentives for employers to reintegrate their absent employees back into the workplace. Similarly, if someone is made redundant, an adequate safety net would give them room in the short-term to find a new job – one suited to their skills.

However, Fabian Society research shows just how inadequate our current system is. As part of our research, we spoke to people who had direct experience of needing to use our safety net, for a variety of reasons. We found that people often didn’t want to leave their workplace permanently but had to because they couldn’t take a temporary employment break.

When his brother sustained serious injuries in a motorcycle accident, one man had to leave his sales role to take care of him. He would have liked to remain in his job but said “I just knew I had to leave, there wasn’t any option really.” In the UK, we currently have no statutory right to carer’s leave, although the government is in the process of introducing just one week of unpaid leave entitlement – but this wouldn’t have been enough for this man’s brother to recover.  

The UK also has no scheme to support people’s income while they retrain. One woman we spoke to was working an in adolescent psychiatric unit for a children’s charity. To move up, she needed an additional degree, so she decided to leave to become a primary mental health practitioner. She has since seen a sharp drop in her income, because she now relies only on universal credit, as well as a bursary and payments for work experience expenses. She has had to run down her savings, rely on support from family, and described herself as “pressured and stressed” about her finances and the rising cost of living.

A further issue is that people who become unemployed are often pressured into work that’s inappropriate for their skillset. Speaking about his experience with work coaches, one man we interviewed recounted “They’ll say, ‘Right, go to Tesco and get …’ They’re not listening to what I’m saying. I’m volunteering in the third sector and that’s where I want to end up, and they don’t even know what that is, so …”.

Unemployed people need both an income safety net and Jobcentre support to find the right job, one they will then be likely to keep. But the government has made this even harder: they have introduced ‘Way to Work’, a scheme which threatens people with financial sanctions if they don’t accept a job in any sector. 

People want to work, they have contributed to society over the years, and many now aspire to move up in their careers. But the government is holding them back. Labour must do this differently and support aspiration by building a stronger income safety net.

There are several options for what Labour could do differently. They could create stronger statutory pay schemes, such as a right to several weeks of carer’s leave, so people wouldn’t always have to give up their work for caring responsibilities. They could introduce a retraining allowance, so people can gain new skills without worrying about financial insecurity; They could increase replacement support overall by, for example, allowing people to claim Job-Seekers Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance (a sickness benefit) alongside Universal Credit, so they have time to find a job that suits their skills and circumstances.

Whatever the solution, it must be both compassionate and incentivise aspiration. These are not mutually exclusive. In fact, our interviews show that by being more compassionate towards people out of work, we will also support their aspirations for the future.

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