UNEMPLOYED people throughout Bury will be among those to benefit from a radical five-point plan to personalise Job Centre Plus in the north west.

The measures also embrace new local employment plans in an effort to get 600,000 more people to return to work. The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Andrew Smith, claim that the shake-up of the New Deal will remove complexity and bureaucracy from employment programmes, making them simpler for customers and better able to meet the needs of local labour markets.

The new forms mean:

Greater power to give local job advisers the flexibility to tailor a wider range of training and support to individual's personal needs

A review of the intervention and sanction regime -- with the possibility of tougher, more frequent interviews

More power and budgets controlled by local managers to purchase training and support to tackle local problems and meet needs with clothes, equipment and travel

Specialist programmes to help people with specific problems such as former drug addicts, alcoholics or homeless people. Expert job advisers would tailor support to the individual's needs.