Blair defends plans to force disabled back into work

Tony Blair underlined his commitment to a "sea change" in the welfare state yesterday when he promised to drive through a campaign to persuade single parents and the disabled to work.

He confirmed that the contentious new JobCentre Plus offices, where people are denied benefits if they refuse help to find work, would be extended across the country. He announced that 50 new centres would be opened in March, with 225 offices completed by next spring.

Speaking at a JobCentre Plus office in Streatham, south London, Mr Blair reiterated his commitment to reforms linking rights to benefits with the responsibility to find work. He said the changes "exemplify both an active welfare state and our vision for public services".

Mr Blair said: "We are now seeing the beginnings of a sea-change in how people view our welfare state. There is growing public support for a welfare state that tackles poverty at its source; that gets people into work; that offers people hope in exchange for a commitment to help themselves."

Mr Blair's comments came after he faced criticism for proposing to reduce benefits for parents of persistent truants and so-called neighbours from hell.

But he defended programmes to force lone parents to discuss their employment prospects and rejected criticism of controversial incapacity benefits tests forcing disabled claimants to attend "work-focused interviews" or risk losing their payments.

He said he wanted "more lone parents to have the chance to be screened for basic skills needs. Where appropriate they will be offered basic skills courses to help them get back on the ladder to work."

He described as a "scandal" the fact that 2.7 million people on incapacity and disability benefits were "written off" and left to drift into unemployment.

Mr Blair said: "In welfare, for too long the right had let social division and chronic unemployment grow. The left argued for rights but were weak on responsibilities.

"We believe passionately in giving people the chance to get off benefit and into work.

"We have done it for one and a quarter million. But there are hundreds of thousands more who could work given the chance. It's right for them, for the country, for society; but with the chance comes a responsibility on the individual to take the chance, to make something of their lives and use their ability and potential to the full."

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, praised welfare-to-work programmes in a speech to members of the giant Amicus union in Blackpool yesterday.

He hailed the success of the New Deal for the young unemployed, saying: "If only one person had benefited from the New Deal that would have made it worthwhile. But in total 660,000 of our fellow citizens have benefited."

Mr Brown hinted that substantial increases in spending on education would be announced in this summer's comprehensive spending review, arguing that colleges and universities should be opened up to more people from working-class backgrounds.

He said: "Our spending review will offer new opportunities to stay on at school, to study at college and university, to enjoy the benefit of lifelong learning into the third age."

He promised that next month's spending review would improve science education, re-equip laboratories in colleges and universities, fund research in key areas and invest in regional technical developments.

On transport, the Chancellor said the review "will update our £180bn, 10-year plan to modernise our transport system and do more to remove the barriers to planning and housing so that we can ensure balanced economic growth in all parts of the country".

¿ The Department of Trade and Industry is to issue a consultation paper on workers' rights this summer. The move, which has been interpreted as an attempt to head off a showdown with the unions at the autumn party conferences, will lead to a review of the Employment Relations Act. It will look at raising compensation payments for unfair dismissal and giving full employment rights from day one at work.