The Labour Party promised in its manifesto a “youth guarantee” for 18-21-year-olds to have access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work. But, speaking on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News, Kendall said that “conditions” will be attached to these new opportunities.
She said: “If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training or work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits.
“The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those new opportunities, which is what we will do. We will transform those opportunities, but young people will be required to take them up, just as they did in the late 1990s with the new deal for young people, and the late noughties with the future jobs fund, because it is so damaging for young people not to have skills or not to be in work.
“I do not want an ever-increasing benefits bill spent on the cost of failure, people trapped out of work – terrible for their life chances, and paid for by the taxpayer.”
The Government is due to announce significant changes to the welfare system and out-of-work support next week. The move forms part of Labour’s plans to get more people into work and cut the Government’s welfare bill.
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Kendall was also interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg. On this programme, she was asked whether there were people who could work but did not work – and the answer was “yes”.
She said: “I know from speaking to our job coaches, our fantastic job coaches in job centres, that there are people who could work, who aren’t. But I think they are in the minority.”
Kendall blamed some people for not working due to “self-diagnosed” mental health problems, although she conceded there is a “genuine problem with mental health in this country”.
