Unemployed Claimants: Recent Trends

Transcription

1 Unemployed Claimants: Recent Trends Mike Tomlinson Introduction This presentation aims to examine recent trends relating to unemployed claimants. We have been working with Statistics and Research Branch on crosssectional data, which involves looking at the characteristics of claimants at a fixed point in time. We have also had access to some flow data in an attempt to assess movements off benefit and the destinations of benefit leavers, as well as the DETI published data on recycling. I have approached the data with three things in mind. Firstly, how have changes in the claimant count impacted on different social groups? Secondly, are there any lessons we can learn from the use of administrative data, its advantages or shortcomings? Finally, how does the analysis relate to policy? I'll begin with the broad trends in the unemployed claimant count over the last ten years. As Figure 1 (on the next page) shows, the seasonally adjusted count peaked at around 106,000 in the latter half of 1992, falling steadily to mid- 1995, then levelling out with a very slight increase for the next 12 months before a very sharp fall to mid A bumpy fall continues through to early 1999 followed by a steady steep decline through to the late spring of We are now on the upward slope of a shallow trough similar to 1995/6 as the count moves upwards again. The last four years, beginning with the introduction of JSA, are therefore particularly interesting to examine because of the extent of change in the claimant count. From the summer of 1996 up to the spring of 1997, the claimant count fell by a dramatic 33,000, representing a 35% fall in a matter of eight months. It is worth noting that this first fall pre-dates the introduction of New Deal for year olds and the subsequent extensions to other groups. 35

2 36 Figure 1: Unemployed Claimant Count (Continuous line, seasonally adjusted; dotted line, unadjusted) Source: DETI Labour Market Statistics Joblessness and Poverty

3 Figure 2: Unemployed Claimant Count, mid-1995 to 2000 JSA New Deal 18-24yr olds (+6 months) New Deal 25+yr olds (+2yrs JSA) New Deal 25+yr olds (+1.5yrs JSA) End of ACE End of CWP Source: DETI Labour Market Statistics. Figure 2 shows the claimant count for the period mid-1995 through to the end of 2000 and the chart is annotated with key policy innovations involving the unemployment benefits and training provision, notably the introduction of New Deal.

4 It is still common to equate the claimant count with the unemployment rate but the count provides the narrowest and most exclusive measure. The claimant count is what it says it is a count of successful claimants of Jobseekers Allowance (JSA), not all of whom will be receiving a benefit payment (about 8% do not). The claimant count generally yields a lower unemployment rate than the Labour Force Survey (LFS) measure because the enumerator is different. The LFS uses the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition of unemployment: the unemployed are people without a job who are available to start work in the next fortnight and who looked for work in the last four weeks. The main groups who tend to be underrepresented in the claimant count compared to the ILO/LFS measure are women, young people, and other New Deal and training target groups (Unemployment Unit, 1994). Another difference in LFS and claimant count method is that an unemployed claimant doing one or a few hours of work in a week would still be counted as a claimant yet the LFS would define this person as 'in employment'. The Unemployment Unit in London is well-known for developing two further measures of unemployment in addition to the claimant count and the ILO/LFS measure: 'broad unemployment' and 'labour market slack' (see the bulletin 'Working Brief'). It has argued that ILO unemployment excludes 'discouraged workers' of whom there are around 14,000 in Northern Ireland (January 2001). Much real unemployment is mopped up by training and employment schemes of one kind or another. Both these are included in their 'broad unemployment' measure. The 'labour market slack' measure adds in estimates of under-employment, as well as those defined as 'economically inactive' but who say they want to work (but who did not seek work in the past four weeks at the time of being surveyed). The latter category amounts to an estimated 55,000 for Northern Ireland at October ILO unemployment was 47,000 at the same date, compared to the claimant count of about 44,000. The statistical representation of unemployment became particulaly contentious during the 1980s, largely because of the growing number of exclusions from the count at a time when unemployment was very high. Indeed, so discredited was the claimant count that the Royal Statistical Society added its

5 voice to those calling for the LFS measure to be given more prominence (Royal Statistical Society, 1995). Thomas (1999) argues that the 1980s/90s discussion over the validity of the claimant count partly missed the point because it failed to take account of what he calls the 'covert movement' of unemployed claimants to other social security benefits, mainly those for long-term sickness (see also Beatty et al., 1997). The claimant count is still regarded as the most immediate and sensitive indicator of labour market trends. It is also useful as a local measure. However as Thomas argues 'it cannot make sense to have two unemployment series, each costing millions of pounds to produce, which do not relate to each other' (1999: 331). Not only do the claimant count and the LFS produce different figures for the unemployed, but they produce different numbers of unemployed claimants. Thomas points out that this latter discrepancy is such that the LFS fails to count one fifth of all claimants. He attributes this to the sampling frame for the LFS and suggests it be linked to claimant records. It may be that these points have less force in the context of Northern Ireland. Although LFS estimates of unemployed claimants are not routinely published, the opinion amongst statisticians appears to be that the robustness of Northern Ireland's sampling frame is such that LFS and claimant count estimates of the unemployed are closer than in Britain. Cross-sectional analysis For the cross sectional analysis three points in time were chosen, one year prior to the introduction of JSA, (November 1995 ) one year after (November 1997) and three years after (November 1999). In terms of social characteristics, we were concerned to establish any changes in the profile of claimants according to gender, family type, age and religion/community background. Furthermore, the analysis sought to examine changes in duration for the various social categories and characteristics.

6 Gender Beginning with gender, while the general trend in claimant numbers since 1995 has been downwards, women have increased slightly their share of the claimant count from 21.5 per cent in November 1995 to 23.6 per cent in November Women claimants generally have a younger age profile than men almost 50 per cent of women claimants are under thirty compared to 38 per cent of men. But for the over fifty age group women are over represented compared to men. The age profiles are again quite different if we bring religion into the picture as shown in Figure 3. Protestant and Catholic men claimants have similar age profiles in the younger groups but they differ in the older groups with Catholics having a larger block of men in their thirties and forties. Almost one fifth of Figure 3: Unemployed Claimants by Gender, Religion and Age (at November 1999) 100% 90% 80% 70% % 50% % 30% 20% 10% 0% P Men C Men P Women C Women <20 Source: DSD Statistics and Research Branch Protestant men claimants are 50 or over. The age profile of Protestant men and women for claimants aged 40 and over is very similar but this is not the case

7 between Catholic men and women. Catholic women stand out as having the most youthful profile 55 per cent of Catholic women claimants are under 30. Having introduced religion as a variable, it should be said that the data is regarded by DSD Statistics and Research Branch as unreliable. Social security claimants are not asked their religion when claiming. So religion is allocated using postal codes and known distributions of religion in 1991 Census enumeration districts. The post code of some claimants is missing and newer codes cannot be attributed by the Price Waterhouse Coopers model which is used for this (the model has not been updated from the 1991 census base). It is not possible to allocate a religion variable to about 10 per cent of claimants and it is unlikely that this 10 per cent is evenly distributed. Nevertheless, in the absence of alternative data, the missing codes were left out of the calculations. Finally, there is some evidence that the model underestimates the proportion of Catholics among the unemployed. (I am indebted to DSD Statistics and Research Branch for these points.) Family Type Moving on to family type, further reservations about the claimant data need to be raised. The data sets for 1995 (the pre-jsa system) contained a different array of family types than the data for 1997 and 1999, preventing comparison for all three dates. As with most administrative data, the categories and variables reflect administrative practice rather than what is desirable for policy analysis and there are no financial benefits to claimants of contributory JSA to declare they have children. So, again we have been warned that the family type data is unreliable and under-records children. From the data we do have what is striking is the high proportion of childless households. Over the two year period, claimants with children reduce to 14 per cent of claimants and single parent claimants almost disappear completely. In fact, as Figure 4 shows, single parent claimants with two or more children had the highest rates of change between the two dates. For couples and lone parents rates of reduction in claimant numbers varied according to family size with the largest families experiencing the highest reduction.

8 Figure 4: Percentage Change in Unemployed Claimants by Family Type, November 1997 to November 1999 All Couple four child Couple three child Couple two child Couple one child Couple no child Single four child Single three child Single two child Single one child Single no child Source: DSD Statistics and Research Branch Age Next comes age. The trend here is that the highest and lowest age groups have expanded their share slightly since In Figure 5 below, the very clear variation in duration profile for different age groups can be seen quite simply, older claimants are more likely to experience longer periods as unemployed claimants. The concept of 'linked duration' differs from the routinely published duration data. In the latter, the start date for an unemployed claimant is literally the last time they made a fresh claim. Linked duration involves ignoring a new start date if this comes less than 12 weeks after the last period of unemployment ended. So a brief spell of employment is effectively counted as continued unemployment. This obviously produces longer durations than published data, to the extent that long-term claimants (that is one year or more) make up over 70

9 Figure 5: Unemployed Claimants by Age and Linked Duration 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% < years + 1-<2 years 6-<12 months <6 months Source: DSD Statistics and Research Branch per cent of claimants in their twenties and almost 90 per cent of those aged 50 and over. The duration profile for different age groups applies to men and women, even if women claimants start from a position of shorter durations in the youngest age group. Religion We have already seen some of the variations by religion. The Protestant share of claimants appears to have fallen marginally from 47.3 to 46.6 per cent between 1995 and 1999 and this seems to be mainly as a result of Catholic women increasing their share by 1.6 percentage points. Obviously these changes are small and there is a question as to whether they are the product of a decline in the effectiveness of the Price Waterhouse Coopers model over time or genuine variations in the impact of declining unemployment. Certainly, the LFS Religion Reports show considerable variation in the ratio between Catholic and Protestant

10 unemployment rates during the later half of the 1990s, suggesting genuine shortterm variations in the impact of unemployment change. Figure 6: Change in composition of claimant count by religion and gender 100% 90% C Women 80% 70% 60% P Women 50% 40% 30% C Men 20% 10% 0% Nov-95 Nov-99 P Men Source: DSD Statistics and Research Branch Duration Turning to duration, as is to be expected, when the claimant count falls durations become shorter, a trend which is very clear even over the limited two year period of 1997 to As for linked durations, the difference in unlinked duration for men and women is also clear from the data we have examined. The biggest percentage change over the period is in the '2 years or more' category (-46.7% compared to -10.4% for 6 to 12 months), indicating that New Deal for the 25+ age group is having an impact. Linked durations have also shortened between 1995 and 1999 and they also vary consistently by religion. Taking November 1999, we split up the religion durations into men and women. This revealed that Protestant women have the

11 Figure 7: Percentage Change in Claimant Numbers (Nov) by Duration (linked) and Religion >2 yrs C Women P Women C Men P Men 1-<2 yrs 6-1<2 ms <6 ms Figure 8: Share of Long-term Unemployed Claimant Count, Gender and Religion 100% 90% 80% C Women 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% P Women C Men 20% 10% 0% >1 year Nov 95 >1 year Nov 99 P Men Source: DSD Statistics and Research Branch

12 shortest duration profile followed by Catholic women, Protestant men and Catholic men. Figure 7 shows some differences in the fall in claimant numbers by religion and gender for different durations over the 1995 to 1999 period. In the 1 to <2 year duration Protestant women claimants fell by 40 per cent, double the percentage fall for Catholic women. Protestant women experienced the biggest change for every duration while Catholic women had the least change. Protestant men were marginally behind Catholic men for the below one year durations but did better in the long term categories. So how has this affected the share of long-term claimant unemployment? It would appear, according to Figure 8, that the Catholic share has gone up slightly from 53.9 per cent to 55.3 per cent largely as a result of the relative increase in Catholic women claimants. Again, caution needs to be exercised regarding the validity of these results. Analysis of Flow Data Given the downward trend in the claimant count, the analysis focused on unemployment claimant leavers. Leavers have a variety of destinations. They may go into 'work', into training or employment schemes, or 'other benefits'. These are the main destinations recorded for administrative purposes. The data sets used for this analysis included information on gender, marital status, age and religion. Two time frames were examined initially: August 1996 February 1997 for leaver destinations; and August 1996 February 2000 for flows off JSA to other benefits. The 'recycling' data (see below) published routinely by DETI was also examined. The first graph, (Figure 9) shows the number of JSA leavers and joiners over the whole period. It demonstrates clearly that the rapid decline in claimant numbers in the 1996/7 period was due to both a sharp increase in leavers and a decline in joiners. Only in two of the 6 month periods examined did the flows on to JSA exceed off-flows during February to August 1996, and February to August

13 1998. The highest net off-flow was for the period August 1996 to February 1997 the period of JSA introduction when the net figure was in excess of 25,000. Figure 9: Flows on and off JSA, 6 monthly August 1996 to February Off Flow On Flow Aug-96 Feb-97 Aug-97 Feb-98 Aug-98 Feb-99 Aug-99 Feb-00 Source: DSD Statistic and Research Branch Six monthly on flows were subsequently tracked back to August The average six-monthly on flow figure up to and including August 1996 was 26,655. Thereafter, the average drops to 20,023. Since August 1997, very few of the people flowing on to JSA have come from other benefits - less than 200 per six month period coming from long-term sickness benefits and approximately from Family Credit. This compares to the six month period up to August 1996 in which 16,458 moved from Income Support to unemployment benefit. The main destinations of those leaving JSA for the 1996/7 period is shown in Figure 10. 'Work ' is fairly steady until the dip in December. At the crucial JSA introduction time, failing to sign, training and other benefits all rise. Other benefits as a destination rose as a proportion of all leavers from 8.6 per cent in September to 18.4 per cent by November. The large numbers who simply fail to sign make it

14 Figure 10: Destinations of Unemployed Claimant Leavers, August 1996 to February Work Other Benefit Fail to Sign Training Other Aug-96 Sep-96 Oct-96 Nov-96 Dec-96 Jan-97 Feb-97 Source: DSD Statistics and Research Branch difficult to draw definite conclusions about the impact of different destinations, though it has been suggested that the 'fail to sign' people have a destination profile similar to other leavers (but are slightly less likely to go into work). So if a substantial proportion of leavers went on to other benefits, which benefits did they flow on to? Figure 11 shows flows onto Income Support (IS), Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Family Credit (FC) (FC recipients were counted as moving into work in the previous graphs). A few JSA leavers retire every month but the numbers are small. So aside from in-work benefits, the flow is from JSA to IS and IB. Initially we were surprised to find such large numbers moving to IS. They either had to be temporarily sick, or they are long term-sick who qualify as unfit for all kinds of work under the personal capability test (but fail the contribution conditions for IB), or they are carers and single parents not required to work.

15 Figure 11: Flows off JSA to other benefits IS IB FC Aug-96 Feb-97 Aug-97 Feb-98 Aug-98 Feb-99 Aug-99 Feb-00 Source: DSD Statistic and Research Branch To examine this further an analysis of the characteristics of leavers to other benefits (not including FC) was carried out. Taking the six-monthly period up to August 1999, it was found that Catholic men were over-represented compared to their share of all claimants (at November 1999) (47 to 42.6 per cent) while Protestant men are under represented (30 to 34.9 per cent). Catholic and Protestant women are similar in this respect but to a much lesser degree. Taking age by religion, marital status and gender, and considering JSA leavers to IS in the six months prior to February 1997 (which covers the introduction of JSA) it was found that Catholic and Protestant women make up more than 50 per cent of leavers in the under 20s and about a third in the 20s age group, lending further support to the finding about the disproportionate decline in single parent claimants. Considering the age profile of the categories for the same leavers, we find that single Protestant men and married Protestant women leavers to IS had the most similar age profile. Single Catholic women and married Protestant men, have the most dissimilar profiles.

16 Recycling data Lastly, recycling data. Each month DETI publishes figures showing how many people who left JSA one year ago have now returned to JSA. These figures are broken down to show leavers by destination and the length of time the leavers were absent from the JSA count. For example taking October 2000 figures we see that one year previously (in the month of October 1999), 9,500 people left JSA. Of these, 43 per cent had returned to JSA within a year 22 per cent were back on JSA within 12 weeks. If we go back a further year and consider JSA leavers during October 1998 we find very similar proportions the recycling proportions have been fairly consistent over the last year, lying between 41 and 48 per cent. Figure 12: Proportions of leavers recycled onto JSA within a year by original leaver destination Work Training/Ed Other Benefit Failed to sign All 0 Sep- 98 Oct- 98 Nov- 98 Dec- 98 Jan- 99 Feb- 99 Mar- 99 Apr- 99 May- 99 Jun- 99 Jul- 99 Aug- 99 Source: DSD Statistic and Research Branch The 'failed to sign' category, while slightly higher,closely parallels the totals for all leavers suggesting non-signers have a similar destination profile. The downward trend in the work category is encouraging but there must be concern at

17 the level of training/education recycling as well as the very slight upward trend in 'other benefit' recycling. It would be too simplistic to interpret this as meaning that training does little or nothing to improve employment prospects and clearly further research is required to examine whether time on JSA following training is reduced. Conclusion Trends In the period we have looked at, there have been literally hundreds of thousands of claimants flowing on and off JSA. These flows have had some impact on the social profile of claimants. Women especially young Catholic women appear to have increased their share. The claimant register is becoming more 'childless', but this may just be a reflection of the higher proportion of claimants who have no reason to declare their children. The middle age groups have been squeezed slightly as the under 20s and over 50s increase their shares. The Protestant share of the claimant count has gone down slightly as Catholic women have increased their presence on the register. As one would expect with a downward trend in unemployment, durations have come down but using the concept of linked durations we can see that long-term unemployment remains very serious especially for older workers and Catholic men. The Catholic share of long-term unemployment increased slightly between 1995 and The analysis of flows off the claimant register suggests that the shift of claimants to training or other benefits contributed considerably to the rapid fall in claimant numbers which accompanied the introduction of JSA. Large numbers of single parents and sick people appear to have moved to Income Support and Incapacity Benefit. And we can see from the recycling data that some (presumably temporarily sick and those failing the Personal Capability Assessment) are moving back to JSA again. However, very few IS claimants now flow on to JSA.

18 These conclusions remain tentative however. There are particular question marks over the validity of religion and family type. Difficulties with the availability and accuracy of the latter (our flow data used marital status not family type) make it hard to pinpoint how children figure in the situation and to study trends over longer periods of time. It is also difficult to engage in small area analysis unless full scans of the claimant register are available. The quality of religion data should improve if claimant monitoring becomes a feature of DSD equality policy. Policy Research on JSA to date has centred on its contribution to changes in regime. The series of studies commissioned by the Department of Social Security (DSS) were mainly looking at how the introduction of JSA affected claimants' knowledge of benefit rules and their job search behaviour (McKay, 1997). One of these concludes that 'JSA has achieved significant changes in the labour market' with more people finding employment after JSA was introduced than before. (McKay et al. 1999), but the study was unable to distinguish between JSA effects and changes in the economy. Another found that job seeking had become more active (more direct contact with employers) with the introduction of JSA. It led directly to a large increase in movements off the claimant count in the first year and some effects thereafter. The study found that recycling rates had gone down when JSA came on stream, but that there was no change in the proportion of benefit leavers who moved into work (two-thirds) (Rayner et al. 2000). It is further reported that unemployed claimants have a high awareness of benefit sanctions and the consequences of not actively seeking work, but that the deterrent effect of sanctions is negligible in at least two-thirds of cases, while the debt and personal distress caused is considerable (Vincent 1998). The academic work on JSA has tended to take a comparative approach, and in fact is more concerned with welfare-to-work strategies as a whole than JSA as such (Theodore and Peck 1999; Tonge 1999). The more policy-oriented

19 work continues to raise a number of issues concerning poverty and benefit levels, and benefit entitlement and the transition to work (Jarvis 1998; Dhillon 2000). Regarding benefit levels and entitlements, JSA limited the payment of a social insurance or contributions-based benefit to six months - the shortest period anywhere in the world (where such benefits exist) and equal only to the United States. Contributory JSA provides benefit for the individual claimant only. Very few unemployed claimants therefore rely on it alone (around 9 per cent in NI) - the vast majority are living on the means-tested income-based JSA. There is a marginal benefit from contributory JSA in households where the beneficiary's income will not be means-tested. So some commentators would like to see social insurance put back on its feet though it is widely recognised that this is unlikely to poverty-proof unemployment. The second set of arguments acknowledges that the principle way in which work starved households can move out of poverty is by greater connection with paid work. This is not simply a matter of having a job or not; it is about how much work (and hence income) unemployed households are permitted before having some or all of it taken from them. Recent research by Iacovou and Berthoud (2000) shows that any contact with work (the so-called 'mini-job' involving a few hours here and there) improves job prospects more than taking a training course. In other words there are incentive issues surrounding the move from JSA to work which lead some to argue for much higher earnings disregards and more flexible benefit rules designed to make the transition to work more secure. The muchquoted Grabiner Report (on the informal economy) was supportive of this and the last UK budget followed through with four week run-ons for housing costs of those returning to work, increased disregards for lone parents, carers and people with disabilities and a back to work job grant, all coming on stream spring Probably the most important budget change is the extension of the linking period for Income Support Mortgage Interest to 52 weeks (meaning that anyone returning to benefit within that time will not have to make a fresh claim and not therefore have to wait for nine months before ISMI becomes payable). And from October 2001 anyone returning to JSA within 12 weeks will not have to re-apply under 'rapid reclaim' procedures, their benefit will have been suspended for the

20 period. This raises a reporting issue for social security statistics and suggests that two sets of data should be published, for linked and unlinked durations. At the same time, the Government has been keen to emphasise more antifraud and disciplinary measures, as well as bringing the partners of JSA claimants within the scope of actively seeking work provisions. From March 2001 couples (if under 25yrs) without children have to make a joint claim for JSA. This will be extended to the under 45yrs from The analysis presented here suggests that new measures which have the effect of pushing unemployed claimants off the register as appears to have happened with the introduction of JSA are likely to result (in part at least) in the shuffling of claimants to training, mini jobs or other benefits with high recycling effects. References Beatty C., Fothergill S., Gore T. and Herrington A., (1997) The Real Level of Unemployment. Sheffield: Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University. Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Northern Ireland), Labour Market Statistics (monthly). Dhillon, B. (2000) 'Minimising JSA Sanctions', Working Brief No. 115, June. Dorling, D. and Simpson S. (eds), Statistics in Society: The Arithmetic of Politics. London: Arnold Grabiner, Lord. (2000) The Informal Economy. London: HM Treasury. Iacovou, M. and Berthoud, R. (2000) Parents and Employment: An Analysis of Low Income Families in the British Household Panel Survey. Department of Social Security Research Report No London: DSS. Jarvis, T. (1998) Employment and Training Schemes for the Unemployed. Research Paper 98/111. London: House of Commons Library. McKay, S. (1997) Unemployment and jobseeking before Jobseeker's Allowance. Department of Social Security Research Report No. 73. London: Stationery Office. McKay, S., Smith, A., Youngs, R. and Walker, R. (1999) Unemployment and Jobseeking after the introduction of Jobseeker's Allowance, Department of Social Security Research Report No. 99. London: Stationery Office.

21 Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Labour Force Survey, Religion Reports (various years). Belfast: NISRA. Rayner, E., Shah, S., White, R., Dawes, L. and Tinsley, K. (2000) Evaluating jobseeker's allowance: a summary of the research findings. Department of Social Security Research Report No London: Stationery Office. Royal Statistical Society (1995), 'The measurement of unemployment in the UK.' Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A, 158(3): Theodore, N. and Peck, J. (1999) 'Welfare-to-work: national problems, local solutions?' Critical Social Policy 19(4): Thomas, R. (1999) 'The politics and reform of unemployment and employment statistics' in D. Dorling and S. Simpson (eds), Statistics in Society: The Arithmetic of Politics. London: Arnold. Tonge, J. (1999) 'New packaging, old deal? New Labour and employment policy innovation.' Critical Social Policy 19(2): Unemployment Unit (1994) Creative Counting, London: Unemployment Unit. Unemployment Unit, Working Brief. London. Vincent, J. (1998) Qualitative research on disallowed and sanctioned claimants. Department for Education and Employment Research Report No. 86. London: DfEE. Session 2: Summary of Discussion Q. Will the One Service have a beneficial effect on JSA claimant duration? A. One of the key features to welfare reform contained in A New Contract for Welfare was a change in the nature of the delivery of social security benefits, hence the One Service. There has been some early evidence to suggest that personal advisers can in certain instances be beneficial. However, if greater emphasis is being placed on the role of personal advisers then it is absolutely crucial that the calibre and training of the advisers be of the highest quality. It is unlikely that ONE will effect issues such as recycling, or the limited flows between JSA and other benefits. Q. Because the religion of 10% of JSA claimant numbers is unknown, how can this be compatible with the equality agenda? A. Currently the unemployed are not monitored by religion and in terms of the equality agenda it is difficult to see how this can be compatible. In pursuit of the equality agenda it would appear that monitoring of claimants by religion will have to happen.

22 Session 3, Gordon 56