Press Release - Sustainable employment: supporting people to
stay in work and advance
14 November 2007
Government-led initiatives to help unemployed people find work
are having a real impact. Programmes such as the New Deal have
helped reduce the number of people on benefit, and the average
length of claims. However, too many people still do not stay in
work once they have found it and more now needs to be done to
address the problems faced by jobseekers who cycle between work and
benefit, the National Audit Office has today reported.
In 2005-06 over 3.6 million people who had previously been
unemployed or economically inactive entered work. However, some
experience difficulty staying in work, and of the 2.4 million new
Jobseeker’s allowance claims made each year, around two-thirds are
repeat claims.
Over a quarter of people who leave benefits and enter work return
to Jobseeker’s Allowance within 13 weeks, and 40 per cent are back
on benefits within six months. Looking at past trends, nearly half
of all people on Jobseeker’s Allowance are likely to have at least
two spells on benefits over a five year period. The National Audit
Office estimates that if the time that repeat claimants spend on
benefits could be halved by increasing the amount of time they
spend in work, it would save the taxpayer £520 million a
year.
One way to increase the sustainability of employment is to help
people improve their skills, so that they can progress from
short-term, entry-level jobs to better jobs. To do this, the
employment programmes provided by the Department for Work and
Pensions need to be better integrated with the programmes for
raising skills, provided by the Department for Innovation,
Universities and Skills. A number of initiatives, outlined in World
Class Skills and In work, better off, have commenced to do
this.
In a labour market as large as that of the UK there will always be
a degree of movement in and out of jobs. There many reasons why
people return to benefits and one reason is that a number of the
jobs people find are only temporary – 40 per cent of repeat
jobseekers allowance claimants said they were only able to find
temporary work. Over 70 per cent said they were not able to find
suitable employment and that barriers such as family
responsibilities, low skills or disabilities made it hard for them
to sustain employment once they had found it.
Improving job retention is essential for the Government if it is to
meet its objectives on child poverty and employment rate targets.
Lone parents are entering jobs at the same rate as the average, but
leave employment at about twice the rate. A 20 per cent reduction
in lone parent exit rates from work would lift 44,000 children out
of poverty.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, said
today:
"Many initiatives led by the Department for Work and
Pensions have increased the number of people entering work and, as
such, have made a difference. However, for some people, help in
finding work is only part of the solution, they also need support
during the transition as they start a new job, and help to increase
their skills so they can stay in work and move up the
ladder.
"The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department
for Innovation, Universities and Skills need to work together, and
to join up national initiatives with local action so that people
are not just helped into work, but to stay in work."
Notes for Editors:
- Economically inactive includes people who are considered
neither employed nor unemployed, for example those on incapacity
benefits or students.
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website, which is at www.nao.org.uk. Hard
copies can be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702
3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is the
head of the National Audit Office which employs some 850 staff. He
and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 49/07
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