Reading's jobless figures continue to rise

This morning, on my way to work I bumped into a couple of my constituents on the bus.

I asked how they were doing -  they looked downcast and said they were on their way to the Job Centre Plus in town.

I have known this family for a couple of years having supported them on a couple of local issues in their street. 

They are both young professionals who live in central Reading with a young daughter.

Mr x had just been made redundant from his job in the IT sector, Mrs x had recently graduated from Reading University.

Both are highly-skilled, highly-educated individuals who are keen to work, and expected to be in work.

Neither of them expected to be claiming Job Seekers Allowance or other state benefits.

Their plans to sell their house and buy a bigger property for their young family have effectively had to be put on hold.

Mr x told me that the Reading Job Centre was full of other middle-class professionals who had never experienced being unemployed before.

It must be a stressful, difficult time for them and for all local people who find themselves in this position.

Mr x told me that jobs paying a decent salary/the national average (around £25k) are very thin on the ground at Job Centre Plus in Reading.

While they look for work this family will continue to sign on and you could see the demoralising effect being in limbo like this is having on them and their lives.

I've been campaigning to raise the profile the problem of rising unemployment in Reading for the past few months, and one which I raised at our party conference.

I've also got the Labour-run Council to focus heavily on supporting home-owners and tenants who are struggling in the recession.

Last week I blogged about the problems facing school-leavers in particular. I've also been campaigning on the problems facing local graduates.

Bumping into Mr and Mrs x today got me thinking : how many other individuals and families living in Reading are in the same situation?

I emailed officers at RBC and got the following stats:

• As of the end of August 2009 there were 4,463 people claiming Job Seekers' Allowance in Reading
• That's up from 1,949 people in August 2008.

That's a whopping 129% increase. 

Within these figures, which groups have been most affectd?

A. Women. There has been an increase of 138% of women claming JSA.

B. Young people. January 2009 – February 2009 saw the largest increases in most age groups claiming with 20-24 year olds seeing the largest overall increase at 34%. 

The recession is very definetly not over in Reading. And as this recent article shows the picture across the country is no better.

Labour ministers have been forced to admit that financial support pledged so far is inadequate (as I indicated a couple of months ago) and had to announce more cash today to support people who find themselves out of work.

What are the Tories saying? Nothing in Reading, but plenty at their Party Conference where they are doing their favourite thing of attacking some of the poorest and most vulnerable in our society - those who are claiming state support because they are too ill to work. 

The Conservatives plan to cut benefits to thousands of sick and disabled people who are not able to work.  In the middle of a deep recession.

So much for caring Conservatism.

I haven't heard anything from local Labour politicians for months about what they will do to help local people.

To take this campaign forward I have written to the head of the Job Centre Plus to arrange to visit to the Centre to get a better idea of what's going on locally - how people are coping, what the pressures are etc

I would also be very keen to hear from anyone who is looking for work in Reading at the moment. My email address is: redlandslibdems@hotmail.co.uk

Don't let anyone tell you that Reading is booming and that unemployment is not a problem.

The recession is still looming large in many local people's lives and my Lib Dem colleagues and I will be doing all we can to keep this issue high on the political agenda.  We will be asking questions to see that Reading Borough Council, local agencies and partners are doing all they can to help local people affected.

With this in mind we will be attending RBC's next "Credit Crunch Summit" which will focus on young people and which is being held on 13 October at 2pm in the Council Offices.

Comments

[Matthew Huntbach]

There are many people who are unemployed and desperate to get a job but don't appear in the statistics because they can't claim JSA or they wouldn't get any money due to their partner working or to having savings above the limit for claiming benefit. So unemployment is hugely above the figures given by the JSA claimant numbers. There are very few general professional vacancies becoming available, because no-one wants to risk things by moving from a job where they are, if anyone does move or retire the vacancy will often be filled internally as most organisations are doing this to avoid making redundancies. Even if they have to advertise it externally, they'll fix it so the internal applicant gets it. The public sector has a longer lead-in time, so it was taking on people when the private sector crashed, but expenditure restrictions are now in full force there, job opportunities will be minimal for years to come.

We were told - and are still being told - that all these highly paid banker types were "creating wealth", but this seems to be rubbish. The top lot of them are still minting it, or have bought their nice homes and have their huge pensions. Those of us who were never involved in that stuff suffer the consequences now.

The right-wing press tried to take our minds off this by concentrating on the MPs expenses scandal - as if a few hundred pounds of dodgy expenses here was more important than payouts to individuals in the finance sector where one top banker's package could have paid every MP's expenses.

The people have been fooled into thinking voting David Cameron as PM is the answer to this. The only criticism the Conservative Party had of the bankers taking control and wrecking this country was that we weren't letting them wreck it even more and even quicker.

The final shot of the right-wing and the bankers' friends is to try and blame the EU, so that if people won't vote Tory they'll vote UKIP. It's all rubbish, and people should be very, very angry at how they have been lied to by those in charge since 1979 and those who write the propaganda sheets called "newspapers".