Jobless generation study reveals employment fears

There are three million homes in the UK where whole generations of families do not work. The number of homes where no-one in the family has ever had a job is 264,000. The government coined a new word for the situation – worklessness.

Channel 4 News has been given access to research by The Prince’s Trust, an organisation which helps young people get into work or training.

The charity and Qa Research surveyed 2,048 16 to 24 year olds in areas where there is high unemployment. It found a generation of young people significantly more likely to be unemployed themselves, who see it as normal to live and die without holding down a job.

The research shows that such young people are struggling to imagine a working life.

Destined for the dole?
– 39 per cent worry they will never find a good job
– 49 per cent have no role models whose jobs they respect
– 1 in 5 (18 per cent) of those from jobless families expect to end up on benefits
– 25 per cent say their parents don’t have the knowledge to help them get a job
– 1 in 10 haven’t even thought about a careers
– 70 per cent have struggled to find a job

The UK has the third highest rate of “workless households” in Europe, behind Belgium and Hungary, but the coalition government says it can break the benefits culture.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith recently announced a reform of the welfare system, which he said would free families from the cycle of unemployment.

“The benefits system has created pockets of worklessness across the country where idleness is institutionalised,” he said.

Chris Grayling, the work and pensions minister told Channel 4 News: “It is not acceptable for anybody to enter the welfare state with the expectation they will spend their life there. Our welfare state has to be a ladder up which people climb, not a place they live.”

The benefits inheritance
Carol Manley has lived on benefits since she was a teenager, and last year her 17-year-old daughter Jade joined her on the dole when she left school. Carol attends job centre courses as a condition of her benefits payments, but deems them a waste of time.

"I’ve got criminal record for stealing, and I've been in prison. No-one's going to employ someone with my record. And anyway, I’ve got no qualifications. Even to work in McDonalds, they want a list of GCSEs these days," she said.

After also leaving school with no GCSE's, Jade initially decided it would be easier to collect benefits like her mother. A Prince's Trust course helped her change her mind.

"I hated queuing up for the dole with drug addicts and prostitutes. I had thought I would just do what all my friends did, and live off the welfare," she said.

"But the Prince's Trust persuaded me it would be better to get out there and earn my own money. They helped me do courses so I had something to put on my CV, and helped me with mock job interviews."

Now applying for jobs in retail, Jade said she is being regularly rejected, but is more optimistic than her mother and wants to keep trying.

Carol said life on benefits is not really a life, it is an existence. But she says whatever the government tries to do to help, she cannot see herself ever getting a job.

The coalition government: carrot or stick?
Mr Duncan Smith says the welfare system he has inherited from the Labour government is “broken”. He has been tasked with cutting the welfare bill – that ballooned to £87bn last year.

But in short term, he will spend more, not less.

Everyone claiming Job Seekers Allowance will be put on the new Work Programme. The details are sketchy, but work and pensions minister Chris Grayling told Channel 4 News people will get tailored support to get them off benefits and into work.

“People will have pre-employment training and mentoring after they’ve got a job, to make sure they stick at it. And we will only reduce their benefits slowly, after they’re earning, so they don’t find themselves worse off by working,” Mr Grayling said.

That’s the carrot – but the government admits this upfront investment could cost billions.

So it has to wield a stick too. People who do not try to find work will see their benefits cut – including housing benefit.

Mr Grayling said: “What we can’t and won’t accept is someone turning round and saying I won’t do it. That’s not on, if they do that they’ll lose their benefits.”

“The purpose of the Work Programme is to make sure nobody can sit at home on benefits doing nothing, that everyone is taking part in back to work activities, that they’re getting support, work experience, training, they’re engaged in full time activity which is taking them step by step towards the workplace,” he said.

“That’s how we do it – much better support for those people but in return an absolute requirement for them to take part.”

The government says as more people are persuaded to work there will be “dramatic savings” in the benefits bill.

Coalition cuts
Labour say the coalition’s Work Programme plans may not be affordable and could lead to cuts in welfare provision elsewhere. It says the government is actually cutting jobs and cutting the help for people to get back into work.

The National Connexions Network, which offers careers advice and support, says it has been “decimated” by cuts in the grants given to councils for youth services.

The Department for Education has cut the grants by £311m in the middle of this financial year.

Connexions centre around the country are laying off careers advisers. The organisation says it will create a postcode lottery, where some young people have nowhere to turn for help finding work.

The government is also scrapping Labour’s Future Jobs Fund. The £1bn scheme had guaranteed 18-to-24 year olds a job or training if they had been looking for work for a year.

The coalition government says it is creating 200,000 apprenticeships instead.

But there are 1.4m under 25’s who are waiting for help (the so-called NEETs – Not in Education, Employment or Training). And 45 per cent of them have never had a paid job.

The government plans to turn to experts – private and voluntary employment training providers. They will only be paid by results – when a benefits claimant has found and kept a job for 12 months.

But some youth workers have already raised fears the training providers will focus on finding jobs for older people who already have some skills and experience, at the cost of the young.

The Princes Trust warns that unless the government and charities work together to offer the young unemployed long-term support, they will be locked out of jobs market for life.

The cost of failure?
Ray Ansah-Adjopong grew up on an estate in London where not working was the norm.

"Mum and I had always lived hand-to-mouth and got by. Not that many people living around me were working. The kids thought low-level jobs were beneath them and the adults didn’t have the qualifications to get a decent job. Kids think 'what's the point? I might as well collect benefits or commit crime.' If that's all you've known, that's what you learn to accept," he said.

Ray chose crime. He ended up in prison for aggravated burglary. It was only then he thought about working for a living.

"I only started to think about getting a job and qualifications when I was in prison. If only I had got that bit right in the first place, I would have never seen the inside of a prison. I suddenly started to think about things like key skills, qualifications, CVs. It was the first time I actually sat and thought 'what do I want to do with my life? What job do I want?' Living on benefits was not for me, I wanted more," he said.

Ray is now studying sport science at university and has a part time job coaching at a football academy.

He says as well as teaching the kids football, he is trying to teach them they have a choice - to aim for a career, not accept a life on benefits.