Ministers should use Universal Credit to put councils at the centre of efforts to get people back into work, local authorities have said.
The effectiveness of welfare reform could be improved with locally led wrap around services, which integrate with regional employment schemes and help claimants move into work – according to London Councils.
In its report: Towards a new model of welfare, the representative body has urged the Government to combine the implementation of Universal Credit with strengthened connections to local authority services.
Around 850,000 Londoners are likely to qualify for Universal Credit, which combines six different benefits into one.
London Councils said that it want funding earmarked for national employment programmes to be pooled into a single pot and allocated to locally-commissioned services.
‘I urge central government to use the implementation of Universal Credit as an opportunity to put local councils at the heart of getting people back into work,’ chair of London Councils, mayor Jules Pipe, said.
‘We welcome steps to simplify the benefit system, but in order to get more people moving from welfare into work, support services must connect with employment schemes.’
‘Boroughs, which have an understanding of local labour markets and strong links with community organisations, are best-placed to help their residents do that,’ Pipe added.