The Guardian reports today.
Government claims to have created an additional 500,000 jobs in the past year have been called into question after it was revealed that one in five of the people involved are on government work schemes, including tens of thousands still claiming unemploymentbenefits.
But figures obtained by the Guardian from the Office for National Statistics show that just over 20% of this total (105,000) involves those on largely unpaid government back-to-work schemes, the majority of whom are still claiming jobseeker’s allowance.
They include unpaid workers doing voluntary and mandatory work experience in supermarkets and charity shops.
Many more tens of thousands with no jobs, training or pay, who simply attend regular job hunt workshops as part of the work programme run by the Department for Work and Pensions, are also being counted as employed.
So now we know: when we’re on the Work Programme ‘job searching’ we’re ‘working’.
Let’s here no more about skivers on the dole!
Source
