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Worklessness Briefing - February 2007

Published: 28 February 2007

Welcome to the first edition of the quarterly BEIC Worklessness Briefing. This is a companion publication to the monthly BEIC Unemployment Briefing.

Whereas the Unemployment Briefing looks solely at 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 Department for Work and Pensions (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).

August 2006 figures published in February 2007 show that:

• The number of residents claiming a workless benefit in Birmingham was 135,140. This equates to a worklessness rate of 22.7% of the working age population.
• The worklessness rate for the West Midlands and England was recorded at 16.5% and 14.5% respectively.