BLACKBURN has been chosen as one of the first places in the country to get a radical new service to help people claiming benefit get back into work, the Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett revealed today.

The purpose of the new-look Working Age Agency is to provide a single gateway to job hunting and welfare support for the unemployed by uniting the Benefits Agency and Employment Services.

Personal advisers will help claimants find job vacancies and give advice on in-work benefits and training opportunities at 50 job centres throughout the UK.

And a more focused benefit service will give groups such as lone parents the reassurance they are receiving the cash they need to ease their way back into work, as well as providing information on child-care available to them locally.

Mr Blunkett said: "These 50 offices, spread throughout Great Britain, are heading up our radical new service to help get people back into work.

"They will have access to job advice through new technology -- including touch screen job terminals -- as well as the personal adviser service which has already proved so successful in helping people find work."

"People will be given a clear path to help them move into paid employment, stopping the waste of talent and experience of people whose lives are spent on benefit.

"We are putting employment first so that before receiving benefit people can discuss the job opportunities and the steps they can take to get back into work with a personal adviser.

"No longer will it be a case of signing on for benefit before looking for work."