Some children are in families suffering sixth-generation unemployment (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Jobcentre staff should be sent into schools to teach children as young as 12 how to get a local job in an emergency measure to tackle Britain’s crisis of worklessness, according to former Work and Pensions Secretary Sir Iain Duncan Smith. There is concern that young people are pinning their hopes on becoming Premier League footballers or social media “influencers” but do not know how to find work in their town’s supermarket or other local businesses.
A major report warns Britain is “heading for the worst of times” and “sliding back into the ‘two nations’ of the Victorian era “marked by a widening gulf between mainstream society and a depressed and poverty-stricken underclass”. The Centre for Social Justice – the think tank founded by Sir Iain following his time as Conservative leader – has met with children who are “fourth, fifth, and even sixth generation unemployed”.
Pushing for Jobcentre workers to go into schools, Sir Iain said: “It’s not about careers advice, it’s giving them a line of sight to a paying job in their local area in the last few years of school, cutting off the descent into inactivity before it even starts.”
A senior CSJ source said: “The reality is, most kids will not end up as Premiership footballers, and being an ‘influencer’ is not a real job. Many young people today will end up in good, rewarding jobs, working for local businesses, and understanding how to secure real employment is absolutely vital.”
Sir Iain warns that “simply tinkering with the welfare state will fail Brits and Britain”.
The report identifies up to £13billion in benefits savings and tax receipts which it says could be achieved during the lifetime of this parliament if a shake-up of benefits helps people into work.
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It warns “650,000 more people are out of work due to long-term sickness than at the start of the pandemic” and cautions that in the next half-decade “spending on disability and incapacity benefits is forecast to increase by more than £18billion to £70 billion”.
The authors claim the “spiralling cost of benefits and loss of human potential” are a threat to “our economy, public services and community cohesion”.
They say people are “turning to welfare rather than wages” to “unlock additional income”..
Stating that the number of workless households with children where no adults have jobs has risen by 141,000 since 2016, Sir Iain said: “These are real families with real lives who no longer have the hope and purpose that comes with getting up and going to work each morning.”
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The report says limiting unemployment must be the “first priority” of Government as the country confronts economic difficulties.
Ed Davies, the director of the think tank, said: “Britain is sick, and being sick pays, but there is hope without simply cheeseparing payments to some of the poorest people in society.”
The CSJ calls for GPs to be banned from issuing “fit notes” for more than 28 days for less severe mental health and pushes for businesses to be given a tax break if they employ and train young people.
Insisting that “work is the best route out of poverty,” Sir Iain said that “unless we address some of the underlying questions of how we function as a society, we will merely be kicking the can down the road for the next government to deal with once more”.