Welfare & Skills
Proposed Legislation for Social Responsibility: Reforming the welfare state into a work-first system and restoring the prestige of technical education.
United Kingdom Parliament
National Skills and Welfare Reconstitution Bill
A BILL TO declare that work is a primary social duty; to establish the National Skills Service;
to reform welfare into a time-limited, contribution-based system; to elevate technical education
to statutory parity with academic degrees; and to prohibit degree requirements for non-technical
public sector roles.
BE IT ENACTED by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords
Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of
the same, as follows:—
Preamble
- (1) Whereas the welfare state exists to support the vulnerable, not to subsidise idleness;
- (2) Whereas labour is a source of dignity, and dependence on the state is a source of atrophy;
- (3) Whereas the nation requires a technically skilled workforce to rebuild industrial capacity;
- (4) Therefore this Act establishes a work-first welfare model and a unified national skills architecture.
Part 1: The Obligation to Work
1
The Work-First Mandate
(1) It shall be the statutory duty of every able-bodied adult recipient of state support to
engage in full-time employment, training, or community service.
(2) Cash unemployment benefits are time-limited to a maximum of 6 months in any 24-month period.
(3) Beyond this limit, support is provided only via placement in the National Service Corps or accredited retraining schemes.
2
Contribution Conditionality
(1) The rate of benefit payable shall be linked to the recipient's prior tax contribution
record.
(2) Long-term contributors shall receive an enhanced rate for the initial 3 months of
unemployment (The Contributor's Shield).
Part 2: The National Skills Service
3
Establishment and Purpose
(1) The Jobcentre Plus network and existing skills funding bodies are hereby dissolved and
reconstituted as the National Skills Service (NSS).
(2) The NSS is charged with a single metric of success: the placement of citizens into
private-sector employment at wages above the living wage.
4
Employer-Led Training
(1) Training budgets previously allocated to colleges for general courses shall be devolved to
Industry Guilds (e.g., Engineering, Construction, Digital).
(2) Funding follows the successful placement of a trainee, not their enrolment.
Part 3: Technical Prestige and Education
5
Royal Technical Colleges
(1) A new tier of Royal Technical Colleges is established,
selective on aptitude and funded at parity with elite universities.
(2) Graduates from these institutions receive a chartered status equivalent in law and pay-scale
to a Master's degree.
6
Defunding Low-Value Degrees
(1) Public funding and student loan underwriting are withdrawn from university courses where the
5-year graduate earning average falls below the repayment threshold.
(2) Savings are ring-fenced for Level 4 and 5 technical apprenticeships.
Part 4: Public Sector Hiring Reform
7
Abolition of Degree Requirements
(1) It shall be unlawful for any public sector body to require a university degree for a role
unless that role creates a risk to life or requires a protected professional licence (e.g.,
Medicine, Law, Engineering).
(2) All administrative and management roles in the Civil Service must open entry via
apprenticeship pathways.
Part 5: Final Provisions
8
Short Title
This Act may be cited as the National Skills and Welfare Reconstitution Act 2026.