Six million Britons are living in households where nobody works [UK]

The Daily Mail [UK] ^ | 19th July 2007 | MATTHEW HICKLEY

[brityank]

Six million Britons are living in households where nobody works

Last updated at 11:47am on 19th July 2007

Six million Britons are living in households where nobody works - costing the taxpayer almost £13 billion a year in benefits alone, a spending watchdog report reveals today.

An astonishing one in six households across the country are officially classified as 'workless' - having adults of working age but none with a job - and almost 1.8 million children are now growing up in these homes.

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Like the TV series Shameless, about an out-of-work family, there are six million homes in Briton where no one works

Read more...

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The National Audit Office report lambasts the Government for failing to tackle this hard-core group, and warns that those living in workless households risk drifting into a spiral of joblessness, poverty, ill-health and crime - with a huge cost to society.

The report acknowledges that schemes to help unemployed people find work are having some success "for those who participate", with the number of those in work at a record high, but says millions at the bottom of the heap are falling through the net.

At a time when hundreds of thousands of foreign migrants are being allowed into Britain to work, the report raises fresh questions over the combined effects of the Government's immigration and employment strategies.

The NAO report reveals that three million UK households - almost 16 per cent - are now classified as workless, and are home to 4.2 million working-age adults and 1.7 million children.

Astonishingly in 80 per cent of such households nobody is actively seeking work.

In one third of cases the household "reference person" - in whose name the home is rented or owned - has no qualifications, compared with 14 per cent of wider adult population, and 51 per cent of adults in workless households are registered with a long-term disability.

The problem is concentrated in cities including inner London - where one in four households are workless - Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, and is worse among some ethnic groups. Pakistani and Bangladeshi households are the most likely to be workless at 22.3 per cent, while Indian households are the least likely, at 6.8 per cent.

Internationally Britain has one of the worst rates of worklessness. Around 13.5 per cent of the UK population live in workless households, compared with compared with 11 per cent in France, five per cent in the United States and less than 3 per cent in Japan.

The estimated £12.7 billion-a-year benefits bill for workless households does not include Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit, the report states.

Nor does it include the wider economic cost to society, which could be three times higher, the NAO suggests.

Both adults and children are more likely to live in poverty and young people are less likely to get a job or take part in education or training, leading to cycle of low-skill and unemployment.

Areas with high concentrations of workless households often face a "cycle of disadvantage" including crime, drug abuse, low achievement at school and family breakdown.

The report claims the benefits bill for such high-needs households is only around one third the total costs for support, adding: "Other service costs include health and social care, housing, drug service and the criminal justice system."

Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said: "More has to be done to reach out to these households and to increase awareness of the support available and help people to prepare for and find work."

Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "It is extremely depressing that there are literally millions of people in the UK who are out of work and not even bothering to look for a job.

"Not only are these people taking advantage of taxpayers but they are also setting an appalling example for their children, who are being brought up to believe that such behaviour is acceptable.

"Hardworking taxpayers shouldn't have to pay out billions of pounds to people who are too lazy to get off their couches to find a job.

"Many people thought that Shameless was a funny TV comedy. Unfortunately it was depiction of how millions of people live in Britain today."

[brityank]

We’re almost there regarding taxes.

We've been there for quite a while; the difference is the US has such a massive economic engine that it takes quite a while before the leaks in the system become incapacitating. Keep on keeping on, and we'll get there!

[brityank]

Unemployment has been falling for over a decade.

As fast as your immigrants and illegal aliens arriving?

[UKrepublican]

Most immigrants are working - especially from european nations where the unemployment rate is I think I’m right in saying less than that of the nation as a whole.

As for illegals - I don’t know - I don’t think anyone does.

The majority of out immigration now a days is from the euro bloc - but there is little we can do about that apart from placing restrictions which is at least (at last) now happening.

[brityank]

By the way:

The National Audit Office scrutinises public spending on behalf of Parliament. We are totally independent of Government. The NAO is headed by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn.

We audit the accounts of all central government departments and agencies, as well as a wide range of other public bodies, and report to Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which they have used public money. Our work saves the taxpayer millions of pounds every year.

-- From the UK NAO website.

[Chili Girl]

Such a burden! Wonder what our numbers are here in the US?

[Popman]

I wonder if working on your Jihad's skills would count as work?

That would be one way to decrease the number of people counted as non working

Typical liberal solution

[mamelukesabre]

I’m afraid there are many white people in UK also on the dole. This is the way the UK works. Socialism causes this. If they really want jobs, they go to college in america and marry an american when they finish.

[brityank]

The main difference is that here in the US the States are responsible for any management of benefits, whereas in the UK it's all under the central government.

The GAO has a bunch of reports to search: GAO Unemployment Search.

One of the had this to say:

The health of each state's UI program depends, in part, on their ability to control benefit payments by accurately determining eligibility for UI benefits in a timely manner. Labor's Office of Inspector General (OIG) and others have identified numerous aspects of the UI program that may be vulnerable to overpayments and fraud. Of the $30 billion in UI benefits paid in calendar year 2001, Labor estimates that this includes $2.4 billion in overpayments, including $560 million attributable to fraud or abuse. Labor's analysis also suggests that the states could have detected or recovered $1.3 billion of the total overpayments given their current policies and procedures. The management and operational practices at both the state and federal level contribute to overpayments in the UI program.

All in all, not bad for 50+ bureaucracies.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Yep!

[traumer]

COOL !

[Mr. Lucky]

Thanks for the clarification. I wondered how so many Brits had matriculated to the University of Kentucky.

[Kay Ludlow]

Goes along with ‘you get more of what you pay for’ - pay people not to work and many won’t work. Pay people to have children, and many will have children.

[brityank]

This is the way the UK works. Socialism causes this.

That's a good part of the reason my Dad left his government job at the MPNI and brought the family here in 1958. Wonder where my kids will go to get away from the insidious socialist march?

[brityank]

What.

You want to raise the IQ in both places?

;^)

[Mr. Lucky]

That’ll leave a mark.

[RightWhale]

Maybe so, but not that many English.

[3niner]

I love it. They call them “workless”, as if anyone in the family actually wanted to work. If they were called “lazy-assed bums”, it would draw a clearer picture.

[kalee]

Why work when others will support you?

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

I’d bet money that >50% of the 6.8% are Muslim.

Well, how else are they going to afford to sit around mosque all day and figure out new and interesting ways to blow up the Britons who are supporting their dole????

Sheesh. Get with the program! :)

[FreedomPoster]

Doh! What was I thinking!?