Press Release

SHAW TRUST CHIEF EXECUTIVE SLAMS BENEFIT BLAME CULTURE

9 January 2008

IAN Charlesworth, Chief Executive of the UK’s largest third sector provider of employment services for disabled and disadvantaged people, today attacked the blame culture that persists around the debate over benefit entitlement.

Speaking after the launch of the Tories’ proposals to move people onto Job Seekers Allowance if they are deemed fit for work, Shaw Trust’s Mr Charlesworth launched a stinging rebuke to politicians who have focused on benefit sanctions rather than constructive solutions to a problem which has dogged successive Governments.

“Over the last 24 hours we have seen some of the worst stereotypes about benefit recipients peddled out by both of the main parties, and propagated throughout the media for cheap headlines,” he said.

“The UK is the world’s fourth largest economy and yet we still spend five times less than the average European country on getting people back into work. We spend more on keeping people in day care and dependency, regardless of their aspirations, than we do on giving people the training, confidence and experience to get them back into work, but despite that we still seem intent on blaming benefit recipients for their situation.

“Despite the Government investing more in employment programmes than any previous administration, under Pathways to Work in some areas of the country, less is actually being spent to help existing IB claimants get back to work than was spent last year under New Deal for Disabled People. We know that people want to work, the problem is that they often don’t have the right support available to help them overcome the barriers facing them associated with poverty, housing and relationship breakdowns caused by being on benefit.

“The solution is simple: invest benefit savings on help to move more people back into work. We have the best welfare to work programmes in the world – we don’t need to look to America as the Tories have, or Australia as the Government has, for the answers. We already have the solutions, we just need the investment.” 

The Government’s own research shows that for every £1 they spend on programmes like NDDP to get people back to work, they save between £2 - £5, and Shaw Trust is calling for politicians on all sides of the debate to commit to making the investment required to employment programmes so that more people can be supported into work and at the same time, to deliver best value for the tax payer.

* Ian Charlesworth is available for interview