The Mayor of Greater Manchester gave evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee on Tuesday which is visiting his region as part of an inquiry into plans to reform job centres.
Mr Burnham, a former Health Secretary, believes his city-region is offering a more successful alternative to the ‘top down’ approach driven by Whitehall with what he called a ‘place-based model’ based on understanding local needs.
“It’s unsurprising why we’re having an inquiry because it doesn’t particularly work.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (Photo: Reuters/Hannah McKay)“I think once you leave as a minister and become a mayor you just don’t think ‘will this please that paper?’
“It is having the courage to step outside of a ‘you’ve got to have a punitive language linked to benefits’ [mentality] – that’s been the Westminster way for quite a long time.
In her spring statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said reforms to the “broken” benefits system will save around £4.8 billion by the end of the decade, and £1 billion will be invested “to provide guaranteed, personalised employment support to help people back into work”.
But a National Audit Office report, published on Monday, found around 2,100 fewer work coaches were employed on average by the department than the estimated need between April and September last year.
Meanwhile, between September 2023 and November 2024 more than half (57%) of job centres reduced their support for universal credit claimants under the flexibilities DWP allows when work coaches have too many cases to deal with, including having less frequent or shorter meetings with claimants.
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