LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government is working to provide more support to people facing long-term unemployment because of the coronavirus crisis, finance minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday.
Sunak said the government’s Department for Work and Pensions was looking at developing a new version of its Work Programme that was launched in 2011 to get people out of welfare and into work.
“We’re actively looking at what a version of that might be that we could put in place,” he said in a question-and-answer session with members of the public on LinkedIn.
“That will provide that intensive support to find new opportunities for those who have been unemployed for a long time, so stay tuned.”
Unemployment is expected to rise sharply as Sunak’s huge job subsidy plan is replaced with less generous support from next month.
(Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Michael Holden)
