Guest column: Lord Freud on the business benefits of Universal Credit

Lord Freud, minister for welfare reform, explains how the Government has designed Universal Credit to help employers and give flexibility.

ACROSS the North West, employers have been opening up the world of work, creating nearly 180,000 new jobs since 2010.

We are supporting businesses across the region through Universal Credit to help you build on that success and generate even more opportunities.

Over the last six weeks we have been reaching out to your prospective employees through our Opening Up Work campaign, showing how Universal Credit makes it easier than ever before to start and progress in work. As our campaign comes to a close, I want to highlight the benefits it can bring to you as an employer.

We have designed Universal Credit to ensure our benefits system helps employers. We want a system that accelerates recruitment and unleashes the growth potential of businesses. Universal Credit does that. Jobseekers on Universal Credit find work faster than those on Jobseeker’s Allowance and crucially for employers stay in work for longer.

Having flexibility in hiring is key to any successful business. Imagine a situation where you had a last-minute order for your products, your part-time staff were willing to work the extra hours to fulfil that order, but couldn’t because if they worked more than 16 hours, they would lose all their benefits in one go. That’s how it was under the old system. Universal Credit puts an end to this perverse disincentive to work more.

Staff on Universal Credit can now take on extra hours without it negatively impacting on their benefits, reducing the need for businesses to hire costly agency workers. And, because Universal Credit stays with workers, even when they are in between jobs, it’s easier for them to take on temporary jobs, helping businesses to react to seasonal demands.

With access to a larger pool of jobseekers, employers can fill vacancies faster. What’s more our dedicated work coaches stay with Universal Credit claimants if they move into low paid work, helping them to progress, so businesses have motivated and engaged employees.

We’re seeing 86% of UC claimants on less than 30 hours a week actively look for more work, compared to just 38% of those on Jobseeker’s Allowance.

We built Universal Credit to bring our benefits system into the 21st century, to smooth the transition between welfare and work.

That’s exactly what Universal Credit is doing in the North West, and across the country as a whole – breaking down the barriers between businesses and workers and opening up the world of work.

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close