Conservative Party Conference 2021: Chancellor Rashi Sunak announces £500m expansion in post-holiday job support | politics news

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Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to announce a £500m expansion of government measures to tackle unemployment and support job seekers after the holiday scheme ends.

In a speech at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Monday, Mr Sunak will outline new funding for plans designed to increase employment opportunities for those looking for work.

The chancellor will praise the success of his “jobs plan” during the COVID pandemic, including the now-expired furlough scheme that has bolstered wages for 11.6 million workers.

Mr Sunak will also use his speech to Conservative Party members to lay out his vision for a “future economy shaped by the forces of science, technology and imagination”.

“With improved infrastructure and improved skills, we are going to make this country not just a scientific superpower, not just the best place in the world to do business, I think we are going to make the UK the most exciting place on the planet,” he will say.

Before his speech, Mr Sunak said he was ready to “double” his promise to “do whatever it takes” in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

“The job is not done yet and I want to make sure that our economy is fit for the future, and that means providing the support and skills people need to get into work and survive,” he added.

According to the latest figures, the number of employees on the UK payroll has now recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

The UK’s overall unemployment rate – from May to July – is estimated to have fallen again to 4.6% from 4.7% the previous month, having topped 5% earlier in the coronavirus crisis.

However, there were fears that the official end of the furlough system last week could cause the unemployment rate to rise again.

Within the chancellor’s new £500m support package, there is an extension of the Kickstart scheme – which provides funding to create new jobs for young people aged 16-24 at risk of long-term unemployment – until the end of March.

Mr. Sunak is also extending the Targeted Job Entry Support Scheme (JETS) – for those who have been unemployed for more than three months – for another year; It offers a youth offer to provide guaranteed support to all young people in the Universal Credit Program until the end of 2025.

In addition, the Chancellor has extended a £3,000 incentive for companies to take on interns until the end of January; It will expand support from job coaches to those with global credit; Priority will be given to those who have left leave and are looking for work on Universal Credit through the Job Finding Support Service through the end of December.

The package will also include a new offer for those over 50, better access to information and advice on later life planning for those in work, and extensive, tailored support for those who have lost their jobs.

Matthew Vail, senior policy director at the Confederation of British Industry, welcomed the chancellor’s plans “to move from vacation to economic recovery”.

But he cautioned that the success of Sunak’s new package “will be measured by its ability to get people back to work”.

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Jonathan Reynolds, Labour’s shadow labor and pensions secretary, claimed the measure “will do nothing to offset the chancellor’s tax increases, cost-of-living crunch and cuts to global credit that are set to hit millions of working families”.

“The government’s faltering ‘jobs plan’ has failed to achieve its original objectives; it is not creating the number of jobs needed and it has failed to address the supply chain crisis afflicting Britain,” he said.

Ahead of Mr Sunak’s speech at the conference, Scottish National Bank shadow adviser Alison Thewlis claimed that the UK “is facing a cost-of-living crisis of the making of the Conservative Party”.

“Instead of pandering Tory followers, Rishi Sunak must take urgent steps to boost family incomes and reverse the UK’s rising levels of poverty,” she said.

“It must abandon the drastic cuts in raising global credit and use the upcoming budget to provide a meaningful package of support to secure a fair and equal recovery from the pandemic.”

Ahead of the chancellor’s speech on Monday, Brexit Secretary Lord Frost will begin proceedings on the main conference platform in Manchester with a speech praising “how the bad dream of our membership in the European Union has ended”.

The Conservative counterpart will say the ‘British Renaissance has begun’ as he highlights the government’s work in reviewing all EU laws that the UK has retained after Brexit.

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