WIREDGOV

To help inform the debate on public spending cuts in the lead up to the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has today published a briefing about the five main benefits that make up, or add to, the income of the approximately five million out-of-work working-age adults.

Working-Age Welfare: Who Gets It, Why and What it Costs commissioned by JRF and written by Dr Peter Kenway (New Policy Institute), Professor Steve Fothergill (Sheffield Hallam University) and Goretti Horgan (University of Ulster) underlines the vulnerability of working-age benefit recipients.

The paper highlights:

• Low benefit levels for jobless adults:
  - After allowing for inflation, Jobseeker's Allowance and Income Support (£65.45 a week) are worth the same as they were in 1997. This is equivalent to two-fifths of the Minimum Income Standard* for a single working-age adult.
• The difficult and complex circumstances many jobless adults experience:
  - 50% are claiming because they have a disability or have health problems;
  - 30% are claiming because they are unemployed;
  - 20% are claiming because they are a lone parent or a carer.
• The challenges of finding work:
  Working-age benefit claimants are concentrated in the UK’s weakest local economies of the midlands, the North, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and parts of London.
• The growth of mental ill-health as an obstacle to paid employment:
  In February 2010, 43% of working age claimants of Incapacity Benefit did so for reasons of mental ill-health.
• The proportion of the country's welfare bill that goes to make up the income of this group of people:
  The June Budget projected spending on social security benefits and tax credits of £193bn. Income-replacement benefits for working-age adults account for one-seventh of this bill – equivalent to less than 4 per cent of all public spending.

Chris Goulden, JRF Research Poverty Manager said today,

"Tackling poverty among Britain’s out-of-work working-age adults remains an intractable issue: many prejudices and assumptions are made about this group of benefit recipients. While progress was made during the previous administration on child and pensioner poverty, the plight of childless working-age adults in particular has been neglected.

This paper highlights the difficult and complex circumstances surrounding adults of working-age. Withdrawal of support will have serious consequences for communities already suffering from the recession.

We urge the Coalition to act fairly when making decisions about public spending. Cuts to public services need to be made with the precision of a scalpel, not a chainsaw."

Lead author, Peter Kenway added: "After allowing for inflation, somebody losing their job today is entitled to no more Jobseeker’s Allowance than in 1997 – or indeed in 1980. Since prosperity hasn't meant higher benefit levels, why should austerity now mean lower ones?"

The paper examines the five main benefits that make-up or add to the income of the approximately five million out-of-work working age adults: Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), Income Support (IS), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

The JRF has set up a dedicated microsite to help inform the debate on public spending. It has also published a quiz to test people's knowledge about poverty in the UK.

* The Minimum Income Standard shows how much various households need in 2010 to reach a minimum standard of living, according to members of the public.