| United Kingdom Minister of State for Employment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Department for Work and Pensions | |
| Style | Minister |
| Nominator | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
| Appointer | The Monarch on advice of the Prime Minister |
| Term length | At His Majesty's pleasure |
| Website | www |
The Minister of State for Employment is a mid-level position in the Department for Work and Pensions in the British government.
The office is currently awaiting appointment.
The minister's responsibilities include:
| Name | Portrait | Entered office | Left office | Political party | Prime Minister | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minister of State for Employment | ||||||
| Albert Booth | 8 March 1976 | 1979 | Labour | James Callaghan | ||
| Harold Walker | 14 April 1976 | 1979 | Labour | James Callaghan | ||
| Minister of State for Work | ||||||
| Nick Brown |  | 11 June 2001 | 13 June 2003 | Labour | Tony Blair | |
| Des Browne |  | 13 June 2003 | 1 April 2004 | Labour | Tony Blair | |
| Jane Kennedy |  | 1 April 2004 | 10 May 2005 | Labour | Tony Blair | |
| Margaret Hodge |  | 10 May 2005 | 5 May 2006 | Labour | Tony Blair | |
| Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform | ||||||
| Jim Murphy |  | 5 May 2006 | 28 June 2007 | Labour | Tony Blair | |
| Caroline Flint |  | 28 June 2007 | 24 January 2008 | Labour | Gordon Brown | |
| Minister of State for Employment | ||||||
| Stephen Timms |  | 25 January 2008 | 3 October 2008 | Labour | Gordon Brown | |
| Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform | ||||||
| Tony McNulty |  | 3 October 2008 | 5 June 2009 | Labour | Gordon Brown | |
| Jim Knight |  | 5 June 2009 | 11 May 2010 | Labour | Gordon Brown | |
| Minister of State for Employment | ||||||
| Chris Grayling |  | 13 May 2010 | 4 September 2012 | Conservative | David Cameron | |
| Mark Hoban |  | 4 September 2012 | 7 October 2013 | Conservative | David Cameron | |
| Esther McVey |  | 7 October 2013 | 8 May 2015 | Conservative | David Cameron | |
| Priti Patel |  | 11 May 2015 | 14 July 2016 | Conservative | David Cameron | |
| Damian Hinds |  | 17 July 2016 | 8 January 2018 | Conservative | Theresa May | |
| Alok Sharma |  | 9 January 2018 | 24 July 2019 | Conservative | Theresa May | |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment | ||||||
| Mims Davies |  | 25 July 2019 | 6 July 2022 | Conservative | Boris Johnson | |
| Julie Marson |  | 8 July 2022 | 20 September 2022 | Conservative | Boris Johnson | |
| Minister of State for Work and Welfare | ||||||
| Victoria Prentis |  | 7 September 2022 | 25 October 2022 | Conservative | Liz Truss | |
| Minister of State for Employment | ||||||
| Guy Opperman |  | 26 October 2022 | 13 November 2023 | Conservative | Rishi Sunak | |
| Jo Churchill |  | 13 November 2023 | 5 July 2024 | Conservative | ||
| Alison McGovern |  | 8 July 2024 | Incumbent | Labour | Keir Starmer | |
The welfare state of the United Kingdom began to evolve in the 1900s and early 1910s, and comprises expenditures by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland intended to improve health, education, employment and social security. The British system has been classified as a liberal welfare state system.
Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance programs which provide support only to those who have previously contributed, as opposed to social assistance programs which provide support on the basis of need alone. The International Labour Organization defines social security as covering support for those in old age, support for the maintenance of children, medical treatment, parental and sick leave, unemployment and disability benefits, and support for sufferers of occupational injury.
Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by governmental bodies to unemployed people. Depending on the country and the status of the person, those sums may be small, covering only basic needs, or may compensate the lost time proportionally to the previous earned salary.
Welfare reforms are changes in the operation of a given welfare system aimed at improving the efficiency, equity and administration of government assistance programs. Reform programs may have a various aims, sometimes the focus is on reducing the number of individuals receiving government assistance and welfare system expenditure, at other times reforms may aim to ensure greater fairness, effectiveness and allocation of welfare for those in need. Classical liberals, libertarians, and conservatives generally argue that welfare and other tax-funded services reduce incentives to work, exacerbate the free-rider problem, and intensify poverty. On the other hand social democrats and socialists generally criticize welfare reforms that minimize the public safety net and strengthens the capitalist economic system. Welfare reform is constantly debated because of the varying opinions on a government's need to balance providing guaranteed welfare benefits and promoting self-sufficiency.
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Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) is an unemployment benefit paid by the Government of the United Kingdom to people who are unemployed and actively seeking work. It is part of the social security benefits system and is intended to cover living expenses while the claimant is out of work.
Jobcentre Plus is a brand used by the Department for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom.
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Brian Leslie HoweAO is a retired Australian politician and Uniting Church minister. He served as the eighth deputy prime minister of Australia and the deputy leader of the Labor Party from 1991 to 1995, under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. He was a government minister continuously from 1983 to 1996, and a member of the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1996, representing the Division of Batman in Victoria.
The Labour Party governed the United Kingdom from 1974 to 1979. During this period, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan were successively appointed as Prime Minister by Queen Elizabeth II. The end of the Callaghan ministry was presaged by the Winter of Discontent, a period of serious industrial discontent. This was followed by the election of Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher in 1979.
The Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand governed New Zealand from 26 July 1984 to 2 November 1990. It was the first Labour government to win a second consecutive term since the First Labour Government of 1935 to 1949. The policy agenda of the Fourth Labour Government differed significantly from that of previous Labour governments: it enacted major social reforms and economic reforms.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment is the Dutch ministry responsible for social affairs, relations between employers and employees, social security, trade unions and emancipation. It was established in 1918 as the Ministry of Labour and had several name changes before it became the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment in 1981. The ministry is headed by the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, currently Eddy van Hijum of New Social Contract.
The Third Labour Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 1972 to 1975. During its time in office, it carried out a wide range of reforms in areas such as overseas trade, farming, public works, energy generation, local government, health, the arts, sport and recreation, regional development, environmental protection, education, housing, and social welfare. Māori also benefited from revisions to the laws relating to land, together with a significant increase in a Māori and Island Affairs building programme. In addition, the government encouraged biculturalism and a sense of New Zealand identity. However, the government damaged relations between Pākehā and Pasifika New Zealanders by instituting the Dawn Raids on alleged overstayers from the Pacific Islands; the raids have been described as "the most blatantly racist attack on Pacific peoples by the New Zealand government in New Zealand’s history". The government lasted for one term before being defeated a year after the death of its popular leader, Norman Kirk.
The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF) was set up by the European Union in late 2006 to support to workers who have been made redundant as a result of trade liberalisation, so that they can either remain in employment or find a new job quickly. It provides counselling; job search and mobility allowances; new ICT skills and other forms of training; entrepreneurial support, including micro-credits.
R v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2013] UKSC 68 is a United Kingdom constitutional law and labour law case that found the conduct of the Department for Work and Pensions "workfare" policy was unlawful. Caitlin Reilly, an unemployed geology graduate, and Jamieson Wilson, an unemployed driver, challenged the Jobcentre policy of making the unemployed work for private companies to get unemployment income. The outcome of the case affects over 3,000 claimants and entails around £130m unpaid benefits.
Workfare in the United Kingdom is a system of welfare regulations put into effect by UK governments at various times. Individuals subject to workfare must undertake work in return for their welfare benefit payments or risk losing them. Workfare policies are politically controversial. Supporters claim that such policies help people move off welfare and into employment whereas critics argue that they are analogous to slavery or indentured servitude and counterproductive in decreasing unemployment.
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