London, February 02: An extra 750,000 British people are to join the ranks of the long-term unemployed over the next four years due to the ongoing economic crisis, reveals new forecasts.
According to the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures, there will be a 32% increase from 2.4m to 3.3m in the number of jobless people expected to enter the Work Program, the British government’s long-term unemployment scheme.
Those aged 18-24 are expected to be the major rise in entry to the Work Program. The largest increase is also predicted to occur in 2013/14, with more than three-quarters of a million extra people looking for work, 362,000 more than previously forecasted.
Moreover, a DWP spokesperson said the figures were released in order to warn private companies and charity subcontractors that administer the Work Program, such as Ingeus-Deloitte, the security company G4S, and Action for Employment or A4e.
The DWP said, “The country faces a changing economic picture as shown by the latest economic and fiscal outlook from the Office for Budget Responsibility. It is only right that we revise our projections for people entering the Work Program to reflect this.”
Chris Goulden, the head of research and policy at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation described the figures as worrying, adding, “There’s definitely a scarring effect, even for short periods of unemployment and the evidence is worse when you’re younger. And protracted periods can start to affect your career later in life.”
Warning that the UK is entering the second phase of the economic recession, Paul Gregg, professor of economic and social policy at the University of Bath, said, “We know that exposure to significant periods without work leads to long-term damage. We know that the costs of that to the individuals in higher future unemployment, lower wages, health-related problems is very large.”
——Agencies