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Worklessness Briefing - November 2008

Published: 18 November 2008

Welcome to the latest edition of the quarterly BEIC Worklessness Briefing. The Worklessness Briefing is a companion publication to our monthly Unemployment Briefing. Unlike the Unemployment Briefing which focuses solely on claimant count unemployment, this briefing investigates the broader issue of worklessness — including people in receipt of other benefit categories such as Incapacity Benefit and Income Support.

The Worklessness Briefing is based on benefit data which is supplied quarterly by the DWP with a lag of approximately six months. The number of people workless and the worklessness rate have been calculated using the DWP’s Working Age Client Group (WACG).

May 2008 figures published in November 2008 show that:

• The number of residents claiming a workless benefit in Birmingham was 129,730. This equates to a worklessness rate of 20.8% of the working age population.
• The worklessness rate for the West Midlands and England was recorded at 15.5% and 13.5% respectively.