Repeat Jobseekers Allowance spells
Research Report No. 394
by Hannah Carpenter
Despite a decrease in the numbers of both long-term and short-term unemployed over the last decade, there is increasing concentration of unemployment within a challenging client group who repeatedly claim Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) without finding sustained employment between claims: the majority of those commencing a new JSA claim have claimed before in the last five years.
This issue is at the heart of government policy, which stresses the importance of work as the best route out of poverty and social exclusion, and promotes the view that any job is better than no job at all. Repeat claimants appear to challenge this view, as despite movement into work they return to claiming benefits. It is therefore important to examine the issue of recycling further, in order to understand how these patterns of claiming can be addressed.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commissioned BMRB Social Research to conduct a survey of repeat claimants in order to address the fundamental questions of why recycling is occurring and how it can be addressed.
Repeat claimants who had made a claim for JSA in February, March or April 2005 were interviewed between five and ten months after that claim. The survey collected details of employment, benefits, experience of Jobcentre Plus and DWP Programmes, jobsearch, training and skills, barriers to work, social networks, household structure and finance. This report presents the findings of this survey. It was written by BMRB Social Research and PSI.
November 2006
ISBN 1 84712 105 5
