Seven million now live in households where no one works - The DM

drc

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1310220/Seven-million-live-households-works.html


I wonder when the scales will be tipped so that there are more people on benefits than working. Probably quite soon I would imagine.

'Shameless' generation grows as seven million now live in households where no one works

By Jason Groves
Last updated at 6:59 AM on 9th September 2010
A fifth of Britons live in households where nobody works, according to official figures.
They reveal that almost four million households contain no one who has a job – meaning more than seven million under-65s live without any experience of employment.
In some parts of the country almost a quarter of households are workless. In the past year alone a further 148,000 have been added to the grim statistic.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said last night the ‘shocking’ figures were an indictment of the last government’s failure to tackle welfare reform.

Since 1998 the number of workless households has soared by 22 per cent, with an extra 700,000 families joining the total.
Mr Grayling said: ‘These figures are a further indictment of how the current system is failing families and are a shocking reflection of the scale of worklessness across the UK that the Government has inherited.
‘Some areas of Britain are suffering from inter-generational worklessness, which is why we must act now to ensure that children living in workless households are not left behind like their parents have been.’
The figures, produced by the Office for National Statistics, show that there are now 3.9million households, containing 5.4million adults, in which no one has a job.
They also reveal that 1.9million children live in homes where no one works – fuelling fears that the benefits culture will be passed from one generation to the next.

Benefits generation: More and more households are living long-term on benefits, like the characters from the Channel 4 programme Shameless

In total, 7.3million children and adults aged under 65 live in workless households.

Sources at the Department for Work and Pensions last night said the figures underlined the need to drive through reforms of the benefits system to make work pay and to get people back into employment.
All 2.6million people on incapacity benefit are to undergo fresh medical tests to see if they are fit to work, with trials due to begin in Aberdeen and Burnley next month.
Those assessed as being able to work would immediately be moved on to Jobseekers’ Allowance.

This would cut their benefits by more than £25 a week and requiring them to seek work immediately.
Ministers are also expected to introduce a ‘Work Programme’ next year, which will force the jobless to make daily efforts to find work or risk losing their benefits. Private companies will be offered incentives to help get benefits claimants back into work.
The ONS figures reveal huge variations in the number of workless households around the country.

THE WORKLESS HOUSEHOLDS

Region Number %


UK 3.9 million 19.2
North East 218,000 24.3
North West 483,000 21.0
Yorkshire and Humber 363,000 20.5
East Midlands 282,000 19.2
West Midlands 347,000 19.7
East of England 292,000 15.7
London 495,000 19.1
South East 385,000 14.2
South West 286,000 17.1
Wales 226,000 22.9
Scotland 411,000 22.6

In the North-East almost a quarter of all households (24.3 per cent) contain no one in work.
It is followed by Wales (22.9 per cent), Scotland (22.6 per cent) and the North-West (21 per cent).
The lowest percentage is in the South-East, where only one in seven households (14.2 per cent) is workless.
The next best figures are in the East of England, at 15.7 per cent of households.
The figures also show that single-parent households are most likely to have no one in work, with almost 40 per cent of single parents out of work.
A spokesman for youth charity the Prince’s Trust said last night: ‘The UK has the highest number of children growing up in workless families in the whole of the EU.
‘These vulnerable young people are significantly more likely to struggle to find work themselves, with many expecting to join their parents in the dole queue.
‘We know that the downward spiral of unemployment can lead to crime, homelessness, or worse.
‘Only by giving these young people the right support and role models will we break this cycle of worklessness.’

bendix

Why do those pictures of the two families remind me of the opening credits to Little Britain?

System

The 2nd picture is from a TV programme as it happens...

purch

I havn't worked since 1996.

I must be scum then :eek:

robin_banks

What percentage of people live in a household where no-one has ever worked ?

IIRC a reliable link posted on this site (in response to a DM link strangely) found there to be less than 2%.

DM over egging the pudding methinks.

purch

Joeskeppi wrote: »

The 2nd picture is from a TV programme as it happens...

That David Threlfall should be ashamed of himself. Living off benefits when he could easily earn a fortune acting and directing TV programs.

An utter discrace :eek:

blueboy43

purch wrote: »

I havn't worked since 1996.

I must be scum then :eek:

Ah, but I bet you haven't got a teenage girlfriend though.

Have you Purch ?

bendix

Joeskeppi wrote: »

The 2nd picture is from a TV programme as it happens...

Is it really?

A classic case of Oscar Wilde's theory of life imitating art, then.

Percy1983

This is the biggest problem I see, not so much that mnay don't work, but the fact there children do the same. I have said many times chavs breed chavs, yes I agree not all children from working families will go on to work and not all children from none working families won't work, but there is a link and something needs to be done.

As for the family above, my first thought was £23000 isn't all that much, but then you do the sums of everything they don't have to pay and it soon adds up.

If you are on long term benefits you should have to explain to your children why they don't get much for xmas (maybe that would motivate people to work) not have a spare £1k for it.

I don't think any children should suffer, but they shouldn't be able to afford the latest gadgets and when they don't ahve the the gadgets the other kids have the parents have to say 'sorry its because I don't work'. If it doesn't motivate the parents to work it might motivate the children to work later in life.

Blacklight

For reasons I wasn't entirely aware of I haven't had any contact with workshy, jobless benefit scroungers for a long time.

It didn't occur to me until just the other day that I never mix with these people. When I was younger I suppose things were a bit different and there were council homes nearby, but now I only ever really see people at work, family, friends or neighbors. None of which are scummy benefit cheats living on council estates. I usually drink in more relaxed venues where people and friendly and talk to one another rather than busy pubs or clubs anymore.

I was in a shopping mall the other day minding my own business and waiting to meet a friend. I stood on the first floor, looking over the railing (as you do) at the people down below. Some fat chav girl with half a bakery sticking out the top of her jeans caught my eye and as I looked at her, she looked up at me, gurned like a toothless old crone and mouthed some obscenity seemingly oblivious or uncaring that she was in a busy shopping center.

I can't recall the last time a complete stranger was that rude. It stuck me at that moment that people with no money have a really, really bad attitude. The two things are intrinsically linked. Since then I have obseved this on many occasions, simply because I was looking for it.

SingleSue

I must admit to taking issue with this article, especially where they have taken the figure and just assumed/stated, that the amount mentioned, have never had any experience of working.

I am assuming, as a person receiving income support, that I and my family are one of those being counted in on the figures yet I have worked more years than not plus, of course, my situation means that working is not exactly easy...so not a benefit claimant by choice but more circumstance.

Also, I assume that the figures also include those who are disabled and unable to work (and a fair few of these would also have experience of working in the past), hardly their fault really and again they are not claimants through choice.

I believe once more, that the DM are using shock figures without going into how exactly they are reaching the figures and are just headline grabbing without really giving the full picture.