Finding Work

Research* shows the following about worklessness. • Over 5 million working-age people rely on state benefits. • Someone who has spent five years on low income has no more than a 10 per cent chance of escape the following year. • Social mobility has decreased over the last five decades. • Densest concentrations of worklessness are often in relatively small geographical areas. • Among households where all adults work, just 5 per cent are below the poverty line. Where there are no working adults, the risk of poverty increases nearly ten-fold to 49 per cent. • Worklessness is particularly prevalent among: Lone Parents, Young People, People with Disabilities. • The worklessness rate for lone parent households is 42 per cent, compared to 5 per cent for couple households with dependent children. • 11% of 16-18 year-olds are ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). • Long-term sickness or disability is the reason given by 39 per cent of working age people living in workless households for their inactivity. Britain now has the highest proportion of long-term working age people with disabilities of any Western country – 7.4%. • Work is the key route out of poverty for virtually all working-age households. *Centre for Social Justice