[Martyn*]

Freedom of Information shows no evidence for thousands of 'never-worked' families

http://fullfact.org/articles/are_the...families-27515

Tory politicians, if I remember correctly, said that there were thousands of feckless families who 'never worked', and that something must be done about it/them. Turns out it's all propaganda and lies...or at least based on zero evidence.

[rugbyladosc]

The article just says the information on entire family employment and earnings is not available. Yes it was a fraudulent claim but I am sure there are children growing up in families where parents/grand-parents have never work.
Obviously it is a meek claim to base a welfare shake up on. It does not take into account the possible cyclical and structural reasons for traditions of unemployment in families.

Propaganda - yes, entirely inaccurate - no

[thegaffer91]

So this was done to attempt to debunk the claim that:

"Thousands of children are growing up in families where their parents and grandparents have never worked."

If this is the case, then there are two generations of "never-worked", parents and grandparents. Later in the same article, the following is said:

"They found that, while workless households were certainly a problem, worklessness across two generations accounted for only a small fraction of households, and those with two-generations who had 'never worked' accounted for around 0.1 per cent of all households, around 26,000."

So they found that 26,000 households where neither the parents or the grandparents never worked. Assuming that there are two children per household, that is 52,000 children "growing up in families where their parents and grandparents have never worked." Surely that meets the "thousands" that successive governments have claimed are in such a position?

[Martyn*]

(Original post by thegaffer91)
So this was done to attempt to debunk the claim that:

"Thousands of children are growing up in families where their parents and grandparents have never worked."

If this is the case, then there are two generations of "never-worked", parents and grandparents. Later in the same article, the following is said:

"They found that, while workless households were certainly a problem, worklessness across two generations accounted for only a small fraction of households, and those with two-generations who had 'never worked' accounted for around 0.1 per cent of all households, around 26,000."

So they found that 26,000 households where neither the parents or the grandparents never worked. Assuming that there are two children per household, that is 52,000 children "growing up in families where their parents and grandparents have never worked." Surely that meets the "thousands" that successive governments have claimed are in such a position?

A generation is about 30 years; two generations, that's 60 years. It's unsubstantiated.

[ackbar]

(Original post by Martyn*)
A generation is about 30 years; two generations, that's 60 years. It's unsubstantiated.

I'm sorry I don't get the relevance of the point you're trying to make? By the articles own admission there are some tens of thousands (their figures suggest 26000) of households where two generations (1: parent, 2: grandparent) have never worked. I fail to see how this does NOT support Tory (and previously Labour) "observations" regarding work shy families?


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[FluxD]

(Original post by ackbar)
I'm sorry I don't get the relevance of the point you're trying to make? By the articles own admission there are some tens of thousands (their figures suggest 26000) of households where two generations (1: parent, 2: grandparent) have never worked. I fail to see how this does NOT support Tory (and previously Labour) "observations" regarding work shy families?


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

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