Ministers are preparing to move the system of paying Jobseekers' Allowance (JSA), currently claimed by 1.58 million people, largely online later this year in a major cost-cutting drive. The aim is to make 80 per cent of JSA payments online within months, with a view to boosting the figure over time to 100 per cent. Parallel drives will see all employer tax returns for VAT being made online by the end of next year, and all child tax credits being paid online by the middle of the next parliament (around the start of 2013). The biggest challenge, however, is understood to be Jobseekers' Allowance because of the complicated nature of the current system, which depends upon regular attendances in person at Jobcentres. Ministers are considering the best way of making sure someone is available for work if they no longer need to attend Jobcentres. To qualify for the JSA an individual must be "available for and actively seeking work", between 18 and State Pension age, and working less than 16 hours per week on average. Maximum weekly rates are £64.30 for single people aged over 25 and £100.95 for couples and civil partnerships. Signing on at the dole office, immortalised in films and television dramas such as Boys From the Black Stuff and The Full Monty, is still seen as an unpleasant, dehumanising experience although ministers claim most Jobcentres are now modernised welcoming venues equipped with computer terminals and advertisements for posts offering up to £100,000. The practice will soon be history – although a Government source admitted that the eventual goal of paying all JSA online will not be achieved "until we get 100 per cent broadband coverage." Martha Lane Fox, the internet entrepreneur, currently heads a government task force aiming to get everyone online by 2012. Currently 10 millions Britons have never used the internet – and four million of these are from the most deprived backgrounds in the country. It has been calculated that achieving the target will save the public purse £1 billion a year in "customer service costs" and boost the overall economy by more than £20 billion. Gordon Brown will underline the Government's desire to move faster towards providing more public services online in a major speech on Monday – although he is not expected to set out specific targets. In figures released last week, unemployment dropped to 2.45 million in the three months to January, according to the Office for National Statistics. About 1.58 million people claimed the JSA in February, down from 1.63 million in October last year. However, the rate of employment, measuring the number of people in work, also fell to a 13-year low of 72.2 per cent. The number of people in work dropped by 54,000 to 38.8 million in the three months to January.End of signing on as dole moves online
Signing on – the duty performed by the jobless to qualify for
unemployment benefit down the ages –
is to be consigned to history under Government plans to save billions of pounds.
Sunday, 21 March 2010
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