The National Audit Office has brought out a report called Helping people from workless households into work.
http://nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/06-07/0607609.pdf
(A workless household is a household that includes at least one person of working-age, where no one in the household aged 16 or over is in employment.)
I have to say that I found some of the statistics in there quite startling:
- There are almost three million workless households in the United Kingdom, which represent 15.8 per cent of all working age households (spring 2006).
- Over 4.21 million people of working-age and 1.74 million children (15.3 per cent of all children in working-age
households) live in workless households in the United Kingdom (spring 2006). - Over 50 per cent of the poor of working-age live in households where nobody works (2004).
- 80 per cent of workless households are economically inactive – they have no working-age members who are actively seeking work (spring 2006).
- Some ethnic groups are more likely to live in a workless household than others. The proportion of all working-age people living in workless households is highest for the Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups, at 22.3 per cent, and lowest for the Indian ethnic group, at 6.8 per cent (spring 2006).
- Low qualified people are more likely to live in workless households than higher qualified people.
- The employment rate of lone parents has increased from 38 per cent in 1993 to 56.5 per cent in 2006, compared to
an overall employment rate of 74.5 per cent in 2006. - People with disabilities are more likely to live in workless households. Some 51 per cent of those living in workless
households have a long-term disability (spring 2004). - Over 4.5 million people claim working-age benefits, totalling over £15.9 billion a year.
- The total cost of workless households in benefits is difficult to calculate with precision, as the benefits data does not record the household status of claimants; however, the cost is estimated to be £12.7 billion a year, including £3.4 billion on benefits for lone parents. This figure does not include the cost of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit.
There is for me a link with the recent Freud Report and subsequent green paper from the Department of Work and Pensions:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/welfarereform/in-work-better-off/summary.pdf
One wonders how and if the voluntary sector can help and if we are being involved at all?
Filed under: National Stuff
