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Worklessness Briefing - February 2010

Published: 23 February 2010

Welcome to the latest edition of the new and revised quarterly BEIC Worklessness Briefing. The briefing has been revised to take into account the new official definition of worklessness now being used by the Government and local authorities as part of the National Indicator Set.

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 DWP data and the National Indicator 153 definition of worklessness.

August 2009 figures published in February 2010 show that:

• The number of residents claiming an NI 153 workless benefit in Birmingham was 129,240. This equates to a worklessness rate of 20.4% of the working age population.
• The worklessness rate for the West Midlands and England was recorded at 15.4% and 13.2% respectively.