Labour’s new welfare chief will announce plans today to make unemployment benefits dependent on past contributions in a return to the principle at the heart of the Beveridge plan that created the post-war welfare state.
Rachel Reeves, who replaced Liam Byrne as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary in October, will use her first major policy speech to promise that jobseekers will have to take basic tests in English, maths and IT or face losing their welfare payments.
Ms Reeves will also tell the Institute for Public Policy Research that Labour is considering the amount available to those who have worked for several years to reflect previous payments in tax and national insurance.
“I think it is right – and I’m going to say more about