Long-term jobless on the rise

Long-term unemployment across Oldham has more than doubled in the past year — but latest monthly figures show dole queues continuing to fall.

Figures show 7,911 now claim Job Seekers’ Allowance across Oldham - down from 7,965 last month. It was the fourth consecutive monthly fall.

A total of 2,490 young people aged 18-24 also claim benefit — 12.4 per cent of all young people, compared with 7.5 per cent nationally.

Long-term unemployment — those on the dole for more than a year — remains a problem, with a rise from 920 last May to 1,905 last month.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams has hit out at a rise in the number of workless families in Oldham.

She spoke out as figures showed a 12.7 per cent rise in households in her constituency in which no one has ever worked — an increase from 3,038 households in April, 2011, to 3,423 in April, 2012.

Mrs Abrahams said: “One year after the Government’s Work Programme started we’ve seen the number of workless households in Oldham East and Saddleworth go up by over 12 per cent, and the number of households across the country where no one has ever worked has hit an all-time high. It’s fresh proof that the Government’s welfare-to-work reforms are failing.”








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