Transforming Lives Through Employability Support

New report finds 1.6 Million people don't get the support they need to get back into work.

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We support people who are struggling to find work every day through our Employment Plus service. Our experience is that people, with the right support and empowerment, can transform their lives.

Employment gives people independence, can keep people healthy, and supports their families.

Our new report shines a light on the invisible 1.6 million ’real unemployed’ who are not receiving government support but who are desperate to get back into work.

Those who do want to work often face barriers such as disability, illness, a lack of skills, or caring responsibilities. Supporting people who have been held back from work for many years takes time but the investment in people has a positive ripple effect.

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The longer people are out of the work force, the harder it will be to support them into work. True economic prosperity comes when jobs are created and those who can work are job ready.

Rebecca Keating, Director of Employment Services

Transforming Lives Through Employability Support

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In this report, we draw on published labour market data from the United Kingdom’s (UK) Office For National Statistics (ONS) to show that in the UK, only half (1.6 million) of the 3.2 million people who are out of work and want a job, receive mainstream employability support through the social security system.

To ensure people can access the support they need, The Salvation Army recommends that:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) take a human capital approach to employability support, with less emphasis on compliance and greater emphasis on tailored and holistic support.
1. Employability support delivered by DWP should use the human capital approach, supporting people into quality work and not just any job and empower them to achieve a sustained improvement to their living through skills and personal development.
2. DWP must halt the use of full award sanctions which withdraw benefits completely from people who do not comply with work search conditions. DWP should reserve their use for extreme cases, given the increasing evidence – some of which DWP produced - of their ineffectiveness and harm.
His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) replace UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF, which pays for many unemployment and employability services) with an Employability and Social Fund, integrating a clear national direction with local ringfencing of funds and local commissioning of projects. The fund should allow Government, local decision makers and employability support providers to plan for the long-term and reach people furthest from the labour market, whilst enabling greater value for money.
The incoming Government should commission an inquiry at the highest level to establish the nature and extent of poverty and set up a taskforce to eradicate it.

To be classed as unemployed you must have actively sought work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks.

However, that classification does not include people who want to work but cannot actively search for a job for reasons usually beyond their control such as lack of affordable childcare or adult social care, lack of up-to-date skills, and homelessness.

So people outside of this classification are often called 'economically inactive' and they often face barriers such as disability, illness, a lack of skills, or caring responsibilities which means it's hard for them to get back into work.