IDS says there are jobs for the jobless

Published on Sunday 6 March 2011 18:15

A PROPOSED shake-up of the welfare system will bring an end to Britain's benefits culture, the Conservatives said yesterday.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said he wanted to make sure that being in work was a more attractive finiancial proposition than remaining on benefits.

He said: "We will make sure it pays more to be in work than it does to sit on benefits.

"And because of that, we can say that if there's work you can do, we expect you to do it - or no more benefits.

"The two halves of the equation - fairness for the jobseekers, fairness for the taxpayer."

Mr Duncan Smith also rejected claims that there are not any jobs available in Britain at present.

"The fact is there are around half a million vacancies in the economy at the moment," he said.

"It's not the absence of jobs that's the problem. It's the failure to match the unemployed to the jobs there are.

"The last 13 years saw the number of people in employment increase by 2.5 million. And yet we have around five million people on out-of-work benefits today.

"So who took all the new jobs? Over half of them went to foreign nationals. This isn't about immigration. It is a simple question of supply and demand."