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The key is that just a fraction of jobless people are claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance – the benefit that is traditionally used to calculate unemployment.
The vast majority, more than 150,000 in and around Merseyside, are out of work and claiming other benefits such as Incapacity Benefit.
Political leaders in local and national government have always struggled to contact this group. In Westminster, politicians have spent the past 12 months talking about making it harder to claim Incapacity Benefit.
But until now, no-one has taken the lead on turning the tide in Merseyside.
The City Employment Strategy, led by Knowsley, is said to mark a seismic shift in the way worklessness is tackled.
Alongside a regional Consortia Board, Knowsley will be responsible for making sure all six local authorities are working properly with Job Centre Plus, DWP, Learning and Skills Council, Government Office Northwest, NWDA, as well as trade unions and voluntary sector.
Having a single authority to co-ordinate how money is won, and then how it is used, should put the region in the top bracket nationwide by 2010 – if all goes to plan.
Knowsley has been handed this responsibility after managing to eat into numbers on Incapacity Benefit and working with lone parents.
Cllr Ron Round, leader of Knowsley’s Labour council, praises a small team led by Tracy Fishwick, head of employment and social inclusion in Knowsley, for managing a turnaround in his authority.
He said: “We first started on this in 1998 with a group of young people.
“Tracy led a small team with just £300,000 to help 140 people. I feel that we have to get through to 16-year-olds but they are only part of the picture.
“It is the unskilled we need to help. Once you stop working for one reason or another, you can end up unable to get another job because you haven’t got the right skills. Your confidence goes and so does the ability even to get up for work.
“If you’re claiming JSA, you get fortnightly updates, training options and advice – it’s also well known it’s not for ever.
“But for those on incapacity benefit that doesn’t happen.”
He also said business leaders needed to communicate more effectively with local authorities to gear unemployed people up with the right sort of skills.
“It’s about employers telling us what they want in 12-18 months to address their needs.”
A radical plan suggested last summer that the Mersey authorities would keep a share of the savings from cutting the benefits bill has not come off.
But local authorities hope to save in other ways.
Source:
Liverpool Daily Post
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