The Worklessness Monitor provides quarterly information on inactive benefit claimants, income support and worklessness – which includes both unemployed and economically inactive individuals. The monthly Unemployment Monitor can be accessed here.

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JUNE 2010

Positive news as claimant numbers fall

Greater Manchester’s total benefit claimant figure fell in November 2009 to 325,030 claimants. This represented a 0.7% quarterly decrease, in comparison to a 0.6% decrease nationally. However, year on year figures show an increase of 8.5% , compared to 8.4% nationally and 6.8% across the North West.

The graph below shows the total claimant rate. The recent steep rise has largely been a result of the growth in jobseeker’s allowance claimants, although this quarter’s drop is spread across all benefit types.

Greater Manchester’s claimant rate of 20.1% is significantly higher than the rate for Great Britain (15.8% ), and shows considerable disparity across the city, with Rochdale the highest at 23.0% and Trafford the lowest at 14.4%.

For Rochdale, pockets of worklessness contributed to this high rate, with Central and Falinge ward experiencing the highest claimant rate across Greater Manchester of 43.7% . Salford, with the second highest claimant rate (22.8% ) also had the second highest ward claimant rate in Langworthy (42.4% ). The City of Manchester, with a claimant rate of 22.5% , has five of the top ten ward claimant rates in Benchill (41.1% ), Harpurhey (39.4% ), Newtown Heath (37.9% ) and Beswick and Clayton (36.2%).

Lone Parent claimants fall, but still higher than Great Britain

Changes in lone parent benefit rules (detailed below) have reduced claimants across the UK. Whilst GM figures have decreased (over the quarter by 2.7% and over the year by 4.0%) in comparison to the national level, Greater Manchester has both a higher claimant rate, and has shown a smaller annual decrease. This suggests that claimants in Greater Manchester may be less affected by some of the recent rule changes.

As of November 2008, LPIS claimant rules changed. For individuals whose youngest child was 12 years old or over, LPIS claims were stopped throughout the year. The following year, in October 2009, the age limit for the youngest child at which parents can claim fell to 10 years old. These will have affected, and will continue to affect the number of lone parent claimants, and could move lone parents towards other more work-focused benefits such as jobseeker’s allowance. However, it remains to be seen what affect these changes will have. The fact that LPIS claimants are not falling as fast in GM as across GB suggests the average age of the youngest child of GM claimants is lower than nationally. These claimants may be affected more so by changes this year, where income support will be stopped if the youngest child is aged 7 or older.

Download this quarter’s Worklessness Monitor:

• Worklessness Monitor – June 2010 (731kb)
• Worklessness Monitor Tables – June 2010 (1292kb)

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For more information about the Worklessness Monitor, contact Chris Pope or phone 0161 237 4024.