Barriers to employment: Purnell's Department's Research

Reporter: David Bartlett (RoFTRA)
Date online: 29/05/2008

Those focusing on the apparently high worklessness of the Lower Falinge Estate, including Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell MP, during his recent visit to the area, will find some of the answers in Research Report 482 of his department published recently.

Titled Social Housing and Worklessness: Key Policy Messages and based on detailed qualitative interviews with social housing tenants in Derby, Islington, Peterborough and Sheffield, the report finds that high levels of worklessness are far more likely to be down to the complexity of the benefits system than where they live.

Researchers found no consistent evidence of cultures of worklessness in deprived communities. Instead, where their work options are only for jobs that are low paid, unskilled and insecure, the fear of not being able to re-engage with the complex benefit system during breaks in employment is the major barrier.

As the report records: Many benefits are composed of one low basic rate with additions to provide extra help for certain groups. Some are paid by Job Centre Plus, others by the Diifsability and Carers Service snd others by local authorities. Tax credits, meanwhile, are administered by Revenue and Customs.

Simplying this would be much more likely to reduce the barriers to work than any other approach, particularly given the range of other barriers that confront residents of deprived communities.

The report is clear: without also taking effective steps to improve the incomes and to promote the livelihoods of existing tenants the other approaches favoured by regeneration professionals are unlikely to be effective.