"The out-of-work group who are in housing estates and unwilling to work"

This story starts back in September with another utterance from Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary:

"We're not just getting people back to work, we're making real inroads into that stubborn part of the out-of-work group who are in housing estates and unwilling to work..."

(Source:  Sunday Express: We are breaking up 'Shameless' housing estates, says Iain Duncan Smith)

This suggests some pretty detailed research into a highly targeted intervention. How had he identified those in Housing Estates? And, fascinatingly, had they discovered a way of identifying those "unwilling to work"?

So I asked and was told:

"According to the Department’s most recent Labour Market Statistics, the number of claimants on Jobseekers Allowance is down half a million since the election, the number on out of work benefits is  800,000 lower since the election, and the number of children in workless households is at its lowest since records began, having fallen by 290,000 since the election.

During his work as both a constituency MP and Secretary of State of the Department, the Secretary of State will have seen for himself the impact of these falls, and has subsequently reflected on this during his interview."

So it looks like there hasn't been any rigorous research on this - at best, Iain might have spoken to a few formerly unemployed people and discovered that they lived in housing estates and really didn't want to work but had been forced into it by his policies.

So I submitted a review request pointing out

"...you have not provided information for the main part of my request, ``In particular, please provide:
• The numbers in the out-of-work group who are in housing estates
and unwilling to work during 2010 and for all subsequent years for
which statistics are available
• The method used to identify claimants as “unwilling to work” ''

After some nagging and delays I was told "The Department does not define “unwilling to work” therefore data is not held on this topic"

It also tells me of  statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on working or
workless households, derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) but so far as I can see, there's no analysis of "housing estates"

My conclusion: While the "stubborn part of the out-of-work group who are in housing estates and unwilling to work" might actually exist, no one really knows how many there are and if the numbers have changed recently. Iain Duncan Smith's statement should be seen as essentially political speech intended to demonstrate action on a matter of public concern. See also "Folk Devil"

'Benefits Street' and the Myth of Workless Communities

This is an interesting paper about a hunt for inter-generational benefit culture and how hard it is to find evidence.

Abstract

This paper critically engages with a pervasive myth about welfare in the UK which is commonly spread by politicians, think tanks and the media. This is the myth that there are areas of the country which are so affected by entrenched cultures of 'welfare dependency' that the majority of residents are unemployed. In undertaking research that sought to investigate a different idea - that there are families where no-one has worked over several generations - we simultaneously gathered evidence about the likelihood that there are localities where virtually no-one is in employment. The rationale for Channel 4's Benefits Street was exactly this; that whole streets and neighbourhoods are of out of work and living on welfare benefits. We draw on research evidence gathered in Middlesbrough and Glasgow to investigate this idea. Thus, the aim of our paper is simple and empirical: is the central idea of 'Benefits Street' true? Are there streets and neighbourhoods in the UK where virtually no-one works?

Full paper here

Households in the UK where none of the adults has ever worked

I was browsing the DWP web site, followed a link to Helping to reduce poverty and improve social justice and found a statement

For example, there are almost 300,000 households in the UK where none of the adults has ever worked

This is actually true but it's misleading. This chart from the Office for National Statistics explains it nicely

(Source: ONS Working and Workless Households,2013 - Statistical Bulletin.)

This shows that the almost 300,000 households include Student Households and although students may have a rough time financially, they shouldn't be used to bolster statistics about poverty. The "real" figure is about 23% less than the DWP say.

For more about households with no one working (currently or ever) and the way the DWP present their statistics, see here