Drop in number of homes with jobless adults
THE NUMBER of British households in which no adult is working has fallen to its lowest level since the credit crunch struck in 2007, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday.
From April to June the ONS counted 3.67m households with one or more person between the age of 16 and 64 where no one was currently working. This is down from 3.83m at the same time last year, but still represents a worrying 17.9 per cent of all households.
Even excluding fully retired and student households, the number of entirely workless abodes stands at a considerable 2.92m.
Yet Chris Grayling, the coalition government’s minister for employment, said the data is moving in the right direction.
“These are encouraging figures: our welfare reforms are helping more people to enter the workplace and more children are living in a household that works,” Grayling said.
Yesterday’s figures show that 1.8m children live in households in which no adult has a job, although infants of single parents are included in the figure. “In 2012 around 59 per cent of lone parent households with their youngest child aged 0 to 4 were workless,” the survey said.
“We can’t be complacent,” Grayling added. “The economy remains a substantial challenge, which is why we need the right employment support to ensure that those living in workless households and their children are given the opportunities and help to succeed.”
Around three in every ten workless people attribute their situation to sickness.