| New Report Highlights Welfare 'Bounce' |
| Thursday, 28 February 2008 | |
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A new report issued today has discovered that some 40% of the people receiving Jobseeker's Allowance who secure employment will be back on welfare within six months. The report, issued by the Common's Public Accounts Select Committee, claims that hundreds of thousands of people are finding it increasingly difficult to find the enduring jobs which can raise them and their families out of poverty - of the 2.4 million Jobseekers Allowance claims made each year, over two-thirds are now repeat claims. Liberal Democrat MP for Southport John Pugh - a long-standing member of
the Committee issuing the report - said this morning that such people
were "falling through the gaps" in government policy. "There are far, far too many people who are now bouncing back and forth between short-term employment and being on benefits. Employment for these people is often no more than a brief interlude between a morale-destroying existence spent surviving off of benefits. The Government's desire to keep the figures for those claiming benefits low 'whatever the cost' is ignoring the real issue; they must accept that the challenge is not to just get people into work, but to keep them there." Dr Pugh was highly critical of both the Department of Work and Pensions, and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, for being slow to develop a systematic, coherent strategy for tackling the problem. "When questioned, the DWP admitted that they were using 13 weeks in work as a yardstick for what constituted sustained employment - how anybody can claim less than 3 months is a "sustained" period in work is beyond me. They're supposed to be monitoring how training initiatives are contributing to sustained employment, and yet they cant provide concrete information on how long individual people are staying in work, or the reasons why they are continually returning to benefits. it simply isn't good enough." The Committee's report found that the people most likely to find themselves in this position are those possessing the lowest levels of skills and qualifications. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the jobs they are likely to move into are themselves those least likely to provide any training. This vicious circle leaves thousands trapped in the welfare "bounce", and Dr Pugh is adamant that the Government needs to do more to help them escape it: "Improving the skills of these people will exponentially increase their chances of securing jobs that last. Simply shunting them into an endless procession of low-skilled, short-term positions makes it incredibly difficult for them to acquire the skills and training they need to quit benefits for good. Government initiatives to increase the involvement of employers in training their low-qualified staff have begun to show signs of success, but such schemes now need to be extended as quickly as possible, they need to be applied far more widely, and information about their success or failure collected far more rigorously." The DWP have now accepted that the '13-week' measure is insufficient. The DIUS meanwhile successfully achieved interim targets for boosting the basic skills of 1.5 million adults between 2001 and 2007 and increasing the number of adults in the workforce with Level 2 qualifications by 1 million between 2003 and 2006. But the Government has now set more challenging targets to be achieved by 2020: 95 per cent of adults to achieve functional literacy and numeracy skills (the levels needed to get by in life and at work) and 90 per cent to achieve a first full Level 2 qualification (equivalent to 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C). The report however found that the people in most need of training and advice, are still amongst the most unlikely to receive it. Disadvantaged workers such as the long-term unemployed, those with poor numeracy or literacy, and lone parents still encounter difficulties in accessing sound advice on local learning opportunities, and how these will increase their employability. "The Government needs to reach out to these people" concluded Dr Pugh. "A pro-active, comprehensive, and systemic strategy is needed to help those trapped in the benefit bounce." |