The New Deal will significantly boost the take-up of jobs by the older long-term unemployed when it is extended and intensified next month, Employment Minister Tessa Jowell said as she commented on new research published yesterday.
The research, by the Policy Studies Institute and titled New Deal for the Long-term Unemployed: a comparison of provision in pilot and national areas, finds that people in the 28 New Deal 25-plus pilot areas – where the programme is compulsory – are finding jobs at 1.7 times the rate of elsewhere.
Employment Minister Tessa Jowell said this research offered a great deal of hope for what could be achieved when the programme for those aged 25 and over is improved and made compulsory across the rest of the country on 9 April.
Ms Jowell said, “Making the New Deal compulsory for 18 to 24-year-olds has helped us virtually eliminate long-term youth unemployment. Now we will be hoping for the same success when we introduce an enhanced and compulsory New Deal for those aged 25 and over. Today’s research on the pilots, together with evidence we already have about the effectiveness of the New Deal model, shows the new 25-plus scheme is likely be equally successful.
“This new programme will provide flexible, individually-tailored help. We are confident that it will help many more people into work and have a significant impact on the level of long-term unemployment.”
The New Deal 25-plus will be made compulsory from April 9, as one of a range of new initiatives outlined in the Employment Green Paper on March 14. Others include:
- more help for lone parents and people for disabilities;
- an extension of Action Teams;
- more help for those with the most difficult problems.
