Helping people from workless households into work : ninth report of session 2007-08, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence

The UK has an employment rate of 74.4 per cent, with some three million workless households.

Adults who are not seeking active work account for some 80 per cent of such households, generating an estimated cost to the Exchequer of GBP 12.7 billion in welfare benefits.

The Government has a target employment level of 80 per cent which means finding work for two million people, including one million people on incapacity benefits and 300,000 lone parents."Helping People from Workless Households into Work (HC 301)" examines the efforts to help people from workless households into work and sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations, which are as follows.New Deal programmes, introduced by the Department for Work and Pensions to help people into work, need more flexibility and earlier intervention with targeted support for those wanting to return to work; the cost of getting people into work through the Department's employment programmes is higher than subsequent savings generated; outreach services for workless people do not reflect the fact that 60 per cent of workless households are concentrated in 40 districts across the UK; earlier support for recipients of incapacity benefit, who currently receive statutory sick pay for six months before being offered any support in returning to work, is essential; and, the Department could not confirm how many of the 2. 9 million people who started a New Deal programme were still participating or what proportion of workless households chose not to work rather than being out of work due to personal circumstances.

Such information is important in order to inform future strategies.