Budget will ‘break down barriers’ to work in bid to fill vacancy void, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tells Sky News
The budget will “break down the barriers” to getting people back into work in the face of more than a million vacancies and a sluggish economy, the chancellor has told Sky News.
With more than half a million people having disappeared from the UK workforce since the outbreak of COVID-19, tackling economic inactivity will be a central part of Jeremy Hunt’s tax and spending plans.
He is due to announce a shake-up of the benefits system aimed at encouraging claimants to move into work or increase their hours.
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This will include a rise in the maximum universal credit childcare allowance – which has been frozen at £646-a-month per child for years – by several hundred pounds, according to the Treasury.
The government will also start paying parents on universal credit childcare support upfront, rather than in arrears, in a move to help those struggling to take on a job or getting into debt under the current system due to the hefty upfront costs.
In addition, the chancellor will set out plans to encourage over-50s to return to work through an expansion of skills training.
And the system used to assess eligibility for sickness benefits will be scrapped, enabling claimants to receive payments even after they return to employment.
There will also be a ramping-up of sanctions for claimants who do not look for or take up work.
Separately, the chancellor is expected to announce households on prepayment meters will no longer pay more for their energy than those on direct debits.
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Speaking to Sophy Ridge On Sunday, Mr Hunt said: “We still have over a million vacancies in the economy.
“And the Brexit decision was a choice – the right choice, in my judgement – to say we shouldn’t fill those vacancies from unlimited migration.
“We need to break down the barriers that stop people here in the UK from working, whether that’s parents who have obstacles because of childcare costs, whether it’s older people who feel they need to retire earlier… whether it’s long-term sick who find there are barriers to working.
“We need to break down those barriers and this is a budget in which I will be systematically going through all the areas where there are barriers that stop people working who want to, so that we can help people get back to work, fill those vacancies for our businesses.”
‘We won’t run out of money’
Mr Hunt also said he wanted to cut taxes in the long term but signalled he would not be making any major announcements in Wednesday’s budget statement.
He told Ridge: “A Conservative government will always cut taxes when we can, but we won’t run out of money. We will be responsible with the public finances.”
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Labour: Clarity on public spending
However, Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves highlighted the financial “mess” caused by the Tories under former prime minister Liz Truss and vowed to have “an iron grip” on the public purse in office.
‘Never put public finances in peril’
Highlighting the economic turmoil triggered by Ms Truss’s unfunded tax cut plans, Mr Reeves said: “You saw what happened last year when the Conservatives mini-budget crashed financial markets, putting pensions in peril and resulting in that long-term Tory mortgage penalty where anybody remortgaging this year is looking at paying thousands of pounds more a year.
“Any announcement that I make about spending and about priorities will say where the money’s going to come from.”
She added: “But it does also mean that there are some things that a Labour government might not be able to do as quickly as it wants because of those constraints.
“But I would never put the public finances in peril in the way that the Tories did just a few months ago, because it is ordinary people and businesses that pay the price for that sort of mess.”
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
Read more from Sky News:
Mass displacement in Gaza – people unsure where to go
Donald Trump picks vaccine sceptic as health secretary
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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