Teesside professor takes worklessness research to Ireland

A Teesside University professor will be discussing her recent research, exposing the myth of the existence of three generations of families living on benefits, in Northern Ireland this month. (January).

Professor Tracy Shildrick is to speak at the ARK Seminar Series in Belfast on a new report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which revealed that three generational worklessness within families was a myth.

Along with Professors Robert MacDonald, from Teesside University and Andy Furlong, from Glasgow University, together with researchers Johann Roden and Robert Crow, Tracy carried out intensive fieldwork with families in Middlesbrough and Glasgow but was unable to find families with three generations in which no-one had ever worked.

The report, called Are ‘Cultures of Worklessness’ passed down the generations?, will be the focus of the ARK seminar on 29 January to a wide audience including policy makers, people working in the voluntary and community sectors, academics, students and the general public. ARK is a joint initiative of Queen’s University Belfast and University of Ulster. It provides access to social and political information on Northern Ireland.

Professor Shildrick explains: 'Our research shows there was no evidence of a culture of worklessness; no evidence people didn’t want to work and were happy to be dependent on welfare. In fact, workless parents were keen that their children do better than they had and actively helped them to find jobs.

'Even two generations of complete worklessness in the same family is a very rare phenomenon. We found that families experiencing long-term unemployment remained committed to the value of the work and preferred to be in jobs rather than on benefits.

'The key conclusion of the study is that policy makers should abandon theories of ‘cultures of worklessness’ and the policies that flow from them (which include breaking a perceived ‘culture of worklessness’ by reforming benefit systems). Instead they should –concentrate on policies that provide long term, secure jobs with good pay and benefits to help people move away from poverty.

'I am delighted to be invited to speak at the ARK seminar. It is important that the results of this research are widely disseminated to policy makers.”

Dr Paula Devine, Deputy Director of ARK said: 'Northern Ireland faces major economic and unemployment problems so this research is very relevant and timely. It is vital that these issues and myths are highlighted so we are very pleased that Professor Shildrick will present this seminar.'

Information

Professors Rob MacDonald and Tracy Shildrick, together with Professor Colin Webster from Leeds Metropolitan University and Kayleigh Garthwaite, Durham University, have written Poverty and Insecurity: Life in Low-pay, No-pay Britain which was published in December ISBN: 978 1 84742 910 0 paperback RRP £26.99. It is available from the Policy Press website at a 20% discount: Buy the book

Recent research which emerged as this book was going to print point to the growing scope and reach of poverty and insecurity in Britain:

1. According to a comprehensive study of the finances of employed households commissioned by The Guardian (Hill, 2012a, 2012b) almost 7 million working-age adults are living in ‘extreme financial stress’, despite being in employment and largely independent of state support . These 3.6 million households have little or no savings nor home equity and struggle to feed themselves and their children adequately.

2. Consistent with the study’s findings, the head of Experian Public Sector, Bruno Rost – who conducted the research for The Guardian, using their own database and government research – described a ‘new’ emergent group of the ‘most deprived’ categories in British society; those who are working but are nevertheless suffering high levels of financial stress. Described by Rost as ‘traditionally proud, self-reliant, working people… these are the new working class – except the work they do no longer pays’ (Experian, 2012).

3. 2.2 million children live on the edge of, or in poverty, despite one or both adults earning low to middle income (Resolution Foundation, 2012).

4. Meanwhile, Oxfam recently found that more people in poverty were working than were unemployed and the number in work but claiming housing benefit had more than doubled since 2005 (Moussa, 2012). Overall, since the economic crisis of 2008, those already in poverty have seen their poverty deepen, and millions more have become increasingly vulnerable (ibid.).

ARK ARK (Access Research Knowledge) is a joint resource between Queen’s University and the University of Ulster. It was established in 2000 and its goal is to make social science information on Northern Ireland available to the widest possible audience. For more information visit www.ark.ac.uk

This seminar is jointly organised with the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work , Queen’s University Belfast.

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